


Thank-Q

by ishipstarship



Series: Q [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Action, Adventure, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drama, F/M, Friendship, Moral Dilemmas, Q Continuum, Romance, Science, Slow Burn, Stranded, Temporal Prime Directive (Star Trek)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25402072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipstarship/pseuds/ishipstarship
Summary: Kathryn and Chakotay are going through a rough patch in their relationship, and neither of them appreciate Q's particular brand of help. Kathy and Chuckles are in for an adventure of cosmic proportions, whether they want it or not. Thank-Q for reading! Set after 'The Gift' - Season 4, Episode 2. J/C.
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Series: Q [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1844476
Comments: 30
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

Chakotay stirred, stifling a groan of frustration into his pillow. Years in command roles had made him a light sleeper, but tonight was just a joke.

He'd been at this for hours; actively disengaging his mind from the worries of the day (of which there were many); relaxing one muscle group at a time, trying in vain to ignore the maddening restless sensation worming in his legs; slipping into a state of semi-consciousness that couldn't quite be classed as sleep, only to be woken a short time later by something that left him feeling anxious and short of breath. What he'd give to be able to open a window… except there was no fresh air in space.

He rolled over onto his side, hoping to scare away the ghosts of half-glimpsed dreams so he could start the search for sleep all over again, and that's when he felt it.

A warm touch on his hip. A breath on his neck.

'Kathryn?' he mumbled, confused but cautiously hopeful.

Captain Janeway used to feature often in his dreams, but lately she'd become as elusive to him in sleep as she was in real life. For a long time Chakotay and his captain had been on the brink of something more than friendship, yet there was a distance growing between them – a result of Chakotay's betrayal of the Borg alliance, Kathryn's preoccupation with integrating Seven of Nine into Voyager's crew, and their combined grief over losing Kes just a few short days ago. He longed for the comfortable relationship they once shared - even if he could only find it in the fantasy world of his dreams.

'I can be anyone you want me to be, darling,' the touch at his hip roamed lower, squeezing him playfully on the buttocks.

Chakotay's eyes flew open and he kicked out at the blankets, his legs getting tangled in his haste to sit up.

'Q?! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Security!' he snatched for his combadge on the bedside table but, of course, it had been disabled.

Q, dressed in full Starfleet uniform and captain's pips, propped himself up on one elbow against the pillows and pulled a droll expression.

'You humans are all such prudes,' he tutted, watching the sleep-haggard officer leap from his bed and drop into a defensive posture. 'Why so tense, Choc-coco? You really need to loosen up a bit. I can help you with that, you know.'

The Q clicked his fingers lazily and Chakotay looked down to discover he was no longer wearing his Starfleet issue sleep-T and boxers, but bum-hugging trunks and a white button-down shirt - see-through and open to the navel, with the sleeves rolled up to reveal his tight, tan forearms.

'Ooo… somebody's in shape!' Q was impressed. 'Come back to bed, sweetie, and let's take a closer look at you,' he patted the rumpled spot beside him in invitation.

Chakotay stalked across to a nearby cupboard and shrugged on his dressing gown. It was a deep, burgundy-red colour – which, on a subconscious level, made him feel more like he was in uniform.

'I'm not playing your games, Q,' he knotted the belt and crossed his arms. 'Why are you here?'

Q huffed in resignation and sat up against the bedhead. 'Nobody ever appreciates my efforts,' he pouted. 'You'd think being a god would earn me more respect from the human race, a little gratitude, but no. All your lot ever did was invent a tiny thing called a warp core and now you think you're the ones in charge of the whole univ-...'

'Enough, Q,' the starship's first officer was running out of patience. 'Just tell me why you've returned to Voyager. What is it you want from us this time?'

Whenever the Q turned up, chaos and destruction normally followed closely after. Whatever danger they were heading into now, Chakotay needed to ascertain the severity of the threat and inform his captain of it immediately.

Q looked hurt. 'Always with the assumptions, Cha-kooky. As it happens, I was unaware that Voyager was passing through this region of space until a few minutes ago – an intriguing discovery, considering that I expected your ship to be ten-thousand light years away, deep in the heart of Borg space. I'd originally travelled to this specific point in space-time to attend to an unrelated Continuum matter, but seeing as our paths crossed so fortuitously I thought I'd take the opportunity to say hello to my dearest, darling Kathy.'

Something protective flared up in the commander's chest. 'What's this got to do with Kathryn?' he demanded.

The knowing look that settled on the Q's face filled him with uneasiness.

'Let me see her! I want proof she's safe!'

'Oh, she's safe and sound, alright,' Q assured him sunnily. 'She was fast asleep in her quarters when I left her just now… mumbling something about you, in fact.'

'You were in her quarters?' Chakotay took a threatening step forwards, his fists balled by his sides.

Q found the human's bravado charming. 'You know, after your buffoonish, jealous display the last time I visited, I assumed you'd be bunked in with the captain by now, and yet tonight she was alone. Why is that, commander? Yours wasn't big enough for her either, hmm?' his eyes flicked up to the tattoo above Chakotay's eye.

'My personal life is none of your business, and neither is Captain Janeway's,' Chakotay warned, voice dangerous.

'But that's where you're wrong,' Q chided. 'Dear Kathy is the godmother of my child, and I suppose you're the closest thing he's got to a godfather since Jean Luc refused, which makes you both key role models in Junior's life. I'm not about to let the two of you and your dysfunctional relationship have a negative influence on the little tyke during his impressionable years - not to mention the impact you'll have on the current timeline if you fail to woo Kathryn... Trust me,' he leaned in confidentially, 'I took a peep into your future, and you're not going to like it. Borg babies. Ergh!'

If the man wasn't a god, Chakotay would have clocked him in the jaw.

'But never fear!' the Q proclaimed. 'I've decided to help you out - just this once. With my ridiculously massive, omnipotent brain on the task we can fix your pathetic lack of a love-life before your quarrelling sets a bad example for my son, and before your inaction turns my bold, volatile Kathy into a bitter, lonely, heartless old shrew. Come now, Cha-cookie,' he beckoned the officer hither. 'Jump in and let Uncle Q work his magic.'

Chakotay refused to comply, but at a click of the fingers he found himself lying flat on his back - a prisoner beneath the bed sheets – as the Loki god turned his head on the pillow beside him.

'How's this, sweetie?' the strange bedfellow asked seductively.

Chakotay stared at the vision in horror. He was lying beside Captain Janeway - the woman dressed in only a pink, silky nightdress - but it was Q's face winking out at him from beneath Kathryn's long, auburn tresses.

'Get me out of here!' Chakotay fought the invisible restraints that held him.

'Oh, relax, commander,' Q resumed his regular form. 'I'm not here to steal your virtue. I'm a kept man now, as you well know, and hell hath no fury like a woman Q scorned... Now, let's have a peek inside that thick skull of yours and see how you got yourself into this romantic pickle.'

Chakotay gasped as a click of the fingers ripped him from the bed - launching him three years into the past and hurtling him forwards again through time - each individual thought and memory like the page of a book that was being rifled through at warp speed.

A second later he was back in his quarters - sitting up in his bed and trying not to vomit.

'I see...,' Q was now reclined on a wingback chair by the bedside with one leg crossed over the other. He wore a tweed suit and peered through a pair of round, black spectacles as he busily scribbled in a notebook.

'Hmm… Subject 1 has repressed feelings of anger and inadequacy as a result of the perceived loss of power and independence in his relationship with Subject 2. He is projecting associated feelings of apprehension and mistrust onto Borg female instead of identifying and dealing with his emotions appropriately. Subject 2 is in denial of the fact that she and her crew will likely never complete the return journey to their homeworld in the Alpha Quadrant. Her current obsession with the aforementioned Borg female is a displacement response to her natural desire for progress, which, in turn, stirs up feelings of jealousy and betrayal in Subject 1. Diagnosis based on analysis: remove the distractions of Voyager and the Borg female, in order that Subjects 1 and 2 are forced to address their problems directly and thereby resolve their differences.'

'What? Wait!' Chakotay was still struggling with the competing urges to breathe and retch up his dinner. 'What do you mean remove the distractions of Voyager and-…'

Q stood over him, regal in his Starfleet uniform once more.

'Don't worry about a thing, Chuckles,' he smiled benevolently. 'It will all come right in the end. See you on the other side... and don't forget to say thank-Q,' he raised his hand, placing thumb to middle finger.

'No! Wait!' Chakotay shouted harshly, but his protests were cut off by a tiny snapping sound. The world around him began to spin – faster and faster – until his body could no longer resist the immense forces it was being subjected to, and he slipped into the cold, bleak darkness of unconsciousness.

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Author's Note:

Curious yet? This tale started life as a quirky little one-shot but grew from there into something more creative & meaningful. I hope it will keep you entertained, loved up & make you think a bit too. Acknowledgements to TheSciFiWriter who encouraged/supported me to stretch my writing skills in this direction & kept me company as I wrote the story. 

As this is being cross-posted from my fanfiction.net page, I'll drop all the chapters in one hit so you can work through it at your own pace (thanks 'N' for the suggestion). If you'd like to be extra kind, I would love to hear your reactions/feedback in the comments to find out what parts of the story connected with you :)


	2. Chapter 2

'Chakotay!' someone shook him awake. It sounded like Kathryn but there was a good chance it wasn't her.

'Get away from me, Q,' he fought back weakly, eyes peeling open as he struggled to remove the leaden hand from his shoulder.

'Stop, Chakotay, please. It's me!' the voice called again, and something in the please made him realise it was really her.

'Kathryn?' he felt for her and she clasped his hands briefly before sliding an arm under his back and pulling him up into a seated position.

'Are you alright, commander?' the captain knelt beside him with a panicked expression, checking over his body to confirm he wasn't harmed.

'Fine, I think... or not,' Chakotay rolled onto all fours and lost his dinner on the grass-covered ground between his hands. Kathryn looked away, allowing him privacy in his moment of weakness.

It seemed to help a little, and when he looked up again the world had ceased to warp and spin.

'What about you, captain? Are you alright? Where are we? Any sign of the crew?' he fired off a volley of questions, eyes darting from his companion to the unfamiliar terrain that surrounded them. It was hard to discern exactly where they were because everything was obscured by late-afternoon shadows. The sun had slipped a third of the way below the horizon line, and the toenail crescent of a second moon was rising to join it's larger companion in the purplish dome above their heads. A star system containing an M-class planet with two lunar satellites? As far as Chakotay remembered, there was nothing matching that description within fifty light-years of Voyager's current location.

Kathryn stood silently and Chakotay followed suit. He'd only just noticed that he was still in his dressing gown. The captain was wearing her Starfleet jacket over the same pink nightdress Q had conjured in his vision. Her hair was loose. Neither of them had shoes.

'To answer your questions, commander, I'm alive... I have no idea where we are... and the crew aren't responding to calls,' she turned to him and her lips were pressed together in a thin, straight line. 'But right now, our main worry is finding warmth and shelter for the night. I came-to a short time before you did and had a look around. We're not alone. I heard things out there. Animals, maybe. There's water in that direction,' she pointed to a grove of trees several hundred yards away, 'A spring, I think, with cave-like structures along one side. We should head there immediately and set up camp before the last of the sunlight is gone. Can you walk?'

Chakotay took a deep breath. The air was clean and it gave him strength. 'I'm ready to run, if you need me to,' he nodded, willing to do whatever she asked of him to assure their safety and survival.

Kathryn's lips lost some of their tightness. 'I don't think that will be necessary, Chakotay, but if you see any branches for kindling can you bring them with you? I'll scout ahead and check the way is safe,' she made to leave.

'No,' Chakotay grabbed her elbow to stop her, and the captain's eyes flashed with anger at this latest display insubordination. 'I don't have my combadge,' he explained quickly. 'We have no way of communicating if something were to go wrong. We stick together until we have a better idea of where we are and what threats are out there... please?' he added, firmly but gently.

She looked at him a few moments longer then nodded. 'Together then, commander. I'll take point. You follow close behind and collect as much firewood as you can without slowing us down.'

'As you say, captain,' he released her elbow and they set out for their camp - bare feet cool and tender with each step they took across the black-green grass.

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The campsite they decided on was more of a open grotto than a cave, but it gave them shelter from the wind, and there were no tunnels at their back to hide unseen predators. Kathryn and Chakotay were both feeling on edge - anxious to return to Voyager and concerned about what Q might have in store for them next - but they rallied together to build bedding and a fire then sat down to discuss their predicament.

'What did he say to you? Q? Before he sent you here?' Kathryn asked when they were each settled on a bed of stacked leaves by the fireside.

'I'm not sure how much credence we should give to anything Q says,' Chakotay answered sceptically. He had a rock in one hand and was using its narrow edge to sharpen a stick into a makeshift weapon.

Kathryn looked over at him, her forehead creased in thought. 'Q rarely lies directly. It's what he doesn't say that we should be concerned about. Tell me everything you remember. If we can fill in the blanks and figure out why he sent us here - what he really wants from us - we might be one step closer to finding a way back to Voyager.'

Chakotay stopped scraping rock against wood and stared into the fire. 'Well, I thought he was trying to seduce me at first,' he admitted, a little self-consciously. 'You too, judging by the pretty nightdress you're wearing under your Starfleet jacket,' he threw a sidelong glance at the knee-length split in Kathryn's satin negligee.'

A tiny smile tugged at one corner of the woman's mouth. 'No, actually. This is just my normal nightwear, but I'll take that as a compliment, commander.'

Chakotay looked into the fire quickly, not wanting the captain to catch him staring at her legs. He'd always imagined her as the grey t-shirt type. He wasn't quite sure what to make of this new information.

'I don't actually sleep in my uniform jacket, by the way,' Kathryn added to be clear. 'I put that on as a preventative measure when Q turned up in my quarters, given his amorous behaviour on the last visit. This time he was charming, even playful, but I certainly wouldn't say he was trying to be seductive.'

'So it was just me then,' the commander winced. He was glad Q hadn't pushed himself on Kathryn, but it made him feel more uncomfortable about what he was wearing right now under his robe.

'Don't feel bad about it. You're an attractive man, Chakotay,' the captain teased him gently, and it was enough to break the tension they had both been feeling since they'd been plucked from their beds and deposited on this lonely, unknown planet.

Chakotay smiled for what felt like the first time in weeks - a bashful, boyish smile that he wiped away with his hand - and the gap that had been growing between them closed just a little.

'Apart from the usual theatrics,' he returned to problem at hand, 'Q mentioned his child several times. Something about us being the boy's godparents and that we needed to act as positive role models. Q seems to have taken a strong interest in... our personal relationship...' Chakotay snuck a look at his captain and caught her hurriedly averting her eyes to the fire. 'I think he believes our recent disagreement might have a negative impact on the boy somehow, and he wants us to... fix things,' he finished vaguely. The status of their relationship (personal and professional) was complicated enough without adding Q's unsolicited matchmaking into the mix.

'I feel like there was something else, too...,' he added, trying unsuccessfully to retrieve the memory. 'Damn. It's gone... What about you, captain? Did Q tell you anything that might point to a motive for removing us from Voyager?'

Kathryn shifted on her nest of leaves and leaned forward to poke the fire with a stick. Q's visit had shaken her deeply, and she had to make a conscious decision to trust Chakotay with her story.

'He brought up the topic of Q Junior with me too,' she began quietly. 'He said he only wanted what was best for both of us... and that's when he showed me something from my future.'

'Yes?' Chakotay felt apprehensive. Knowing Q, it could be one of many possible futures.

'He took me to the day Voyager arrived back at the Alpha Quadrant,' she said into the fire, and when she looked over at Chakotay her face was drawn with pain. 'It should have made me happy to be home, but I saw myself on the bridge in that moment and even though you were there and the crew was all around me, it was like I was entirely alone.' Something about the image horrified her, but there was worse to come.

'Q told me I was so desperate to get Voyager home that I made it happen at the expense of the Prime Directive, at the expense of my personal ethics, at the expense of the trusting relationship I've built with you - my first officer and best friend. The horrible thing is...,' she paused, eyes returning to the flames, 'I know it's wrong, but I want to get home so badly I think I might be willing to sacrifice all of those things to get there. I suppose I already have, in a way, by making an alliance with the Borg just to shave a few years off our journey - and even worse, forcing you and the rest of the crew to go along with the plan even though I knew you were against it. Three years ago I would have never even considered that as an option.'

She threw her stick into the fire and watched it burn. 'What am I becoming, Chakotay? What will I become?' she asked in a low voice, like she didn't really want to hear the answer.

Chakotay rose from his bedding and went to turn a log on the fire. There was a sudden hiss as orange sparks scurried upwards towards the two crescent moons, and the man cast a prayer for wisdom into their dazzling wake before moving to sit at Kathryn's side.

'Whatever Q showed you, whatever you feel in your heart right now, it doesn't have to come true,' he assured her earnestly. 'And as for the trust between us,' he reached across and laid his hand over the back of hers. 'Trust goes two ways. I don't regret my actions in breaking the Borg alliance, Kathryn, but I am deeply sorry for the role that I played in weakening your trust in me, and I'd do just about anything to prove that I'm here for you - that you can depend on me like before. Is there some way we can start over? I want things to be right between us again.'

Chakotay's heart dropped when Kathryn gave no response, but a second later her fingers were wrapping around his own, squeezing tightly. Her eyes met and held fast to his - telling him what she could never find the words to say out loud. I'm sorry. I trust you. Don't ever leave me alone again.

'I just wish we were home, Chakotay,' she finally whispered, breaking the silence. It wasn't clear if she meant Voyager or Earth.

He squeezed her hand in return to show he understood. 'Me too,' he confided. 'And we'll figure it out, I promise - first thing in the morning - but for now, we should probably get some sleep.' The man detangled his fingers from hers and stood up. 'I'll take first watch and wake you when I tire. When morning comes, we can go exploring. Find something for breakfast and learn a bit more about this planet Q has marooned us on, then work out a plan to get us back to our people. Agreed?'

Kathryn Janeway rarely felt uncertain, but Chakotay had a way of lending her stability and strength.

'Agreed,' she nodded, then settled down with her front to the fire and her back to the rock wall. There was no blanket so she tucked her legs up to her chest to keep warm. Starfleet trousers weren't particularly comfortable or flattering but she wished for a pair now.

'Sleep well, captain,' Chakotay called softly from his own bed, just a few feet away from her head.

Kathryn's breathing was already growing slow and even. The last thing that she heard before she fell asleep was the steady scraping rhythm of Chakotay whittling his knife, and the hum of far off insects singing in the night.

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Author's Note:

Marooned alone together again. But this is not New Earth, and as far as we know, there's no Voyager on their way to save them. J/C are going to be waking up to a whole new world in the morning - let's see what they can make of their new situation...

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	3. Chapter 3

They awoke to a chilly morning - bodies stiff from sleeping on the ground. There was no bathroom for showering, no uniforms to change into, no breakfast and no coffee.

Captain Janeway sat on a rock by the embers of last night's fire and ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to flatten her rumpled mane, while Chakotay wandered off in search of a private spot to relieve himself. He was gone awhile longer than Kathryn expected and she was considering if she should go to look for him when he emerged from a lushly vegetated slope to the south - carrying something wrapped in a parcel of leaves.

'What is it?' Kathryn asked when he was close enough to hear, tucking her hands into her armpits to warm them.

'Mulberries, apparently,' he unveiled the treasure, each plump, black nugget begging to be tasted.

'Are you sure they're safe to eat?' Kathryn gave one a tentative prod. 'They look like mulberries, but there's no way of knowing how this alien variety might interact with the human digestive system. What if they're poisonous?'

'Seeing as we don't have the luxury of a tricorder to scan them, the only way of knowing if they're edible is to give one a try,' Chakotay shrugged, setting the pile down on a rock near the fire and breaking one of the berries open with a pop. The juice smelled sweet enough, and produced no adverse reaction when he rubbed it against the soft skin on the inside of his wrist.

'Here goes nothing,' he bit into the fruit, chewed thoughtfully, then swallowed. 'It's slightly more tart than the mulberries I'm used to, but... actually quite delicious,' he nodded in approval. 'Would you like to try one?'

Kathryn stepped closer and accepted the gift - taking a small nibble at first then popping the rest into her mouth in one go. 'Mmm - not bad,' she admitted, a sarcastic twist pulling at one corner of her lips. 'All it's missing is the pancakes...'

'Did somebody say pancakes?'

The captain and her commander both spun around - instantly on guard - to see Q sitting at a restaurant table that was laid out for two; plates stacked with syrupy pancakes, colourful fruits and an assortment of glazed pastries. He had a napkin tucked into the neck of his Starfleet uniform and was taking a sip of coffee from a mug that had a picture of Chakotay's face on the side.

'Nice little place you've got here,' he announced conversationally. 'How did you two enjoy camping out last night? Anyone sneak out of bed to snuggle up close with a friend? Come on... you can tell Uncle Q,' he teased, pulling a coy expression.

Chakotay's anger was the quiet, seething kind, but Captain Janeway advanced on the Q with unbridled contempt.

'God or not, what makes you think you have the right to play with the lives of me and my crew?!' she leaned her hands on the breakfast table so her face was only inches from his. 'First it was you and Quinn using my ship as leverage in a debate that was none of our concern, then you turned up again demanding to mate with me and dragging us into the Continuum's civil war. I don't know what your obsession is with Voyager, Q, but this ends now. Give me back my ship, give me back my crew, give me back my uniform, and don't grace us with your presence again!' Kathryn finished bitterly, slamming a hand down on the tabletop for emphasis.

Q raised an eyebrow at her outburst. 'If you really want me to bring Voyager back to you, I guess I can, but are you sure you'd want to do that to the crew?' he shifted his chair out and rounded the table towards her in leisurely pursuit.

'What do you mean?' Captain Janeway narrowed her eyes, wary of whatever new trick Q was spinning.

'Oh, it's just that I wanted to give you a gift, Kathy - you know, to thank you for your role in stabilising the Q Continuum and assisting in the birth of my son...' he blinked at her. Knowing. Baiting. Sticking in the knife and preparing to twist. '... So I thought to myself, what gift would the great Captain Janeway really appreciate, and the the answer came to me right away. It only took a click of the fingers and I sent Voyager home!'

'You what?' Chakotay asked dangerously, stepping forward and grabbing Kathryn's arm in case she launched herself at the Q and got them into even graver danger.

'I sent them home!' Q smiled proudly. 'Right...,' he waited for the exact millisecond, '...now, Captain Tuvok is entering the Alpha Quadrant to a welcoming party of eighteen Federation and Cardassian vessels. He made Lieutenant Paris acting First Officer, you'll be glad to know - Admiral Paris will be so proud. The whole crew is excited to be home at last. Ensign Kim is looking forward to that long-awaited reunion with his parents, and Captain Tuvok's wife and children have been summoned to rendezvous with Voyager at the nearest Vulcan outpost on their victory lap home to Earth. Tuvok doesn't know it yet, but he has a granddaughter now - named T'Meni after his own dearly-departed mother. And we mustn't forget young Naomi Wildman - the child who's never known her father or her homeworld, about to see them both for the very first time. You wouldn't make me take that away from them, would you, Kathy?'

Kathryn remained silent. Her chest heaving. Her face a greenish pallor.

'If you're so fond of clicking your fingers, Q, click again,' Chakotay suggested harshly, wrapping his arm around Kathryn's shoulders as if to shield her.

He was personally devastated by Q's cruel news, but his immediate concern was for his captain. Kathryn had dedicated every waking moment of the past three years to getting their ship and crew home. He knew she would have gladly given her life in order to get Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant, but to miss out on seeing Earth for herself just to suit the fickle whim of a god? He feared the grief of her loss would consume her.

'Leave Voyager in the Alpha Quadrant and let us join them there!' he petitioned. 'Kathryn and I have done everything in our power to help you and your people in the past. Help us now - just this once - and we can call it even.'

'No can do, Chuckles,' Q shook his head sadly. 'The rest of the Continuum are already miffed at me for using my powers to benefit the substandard life-forms on Voyager. If I'm seen to be favouring humanity any further, the Q are sure to start up the whole civil war thing again, and then what would the universe come to? And besides, commander, this was the part of the present I thought you would enjoy the most. The beautiful Kathryn Janeway - all to yourself, with no Voyager to claim her attention, and no rank or regulations to drive a wedge between you. Do I hear a thank-Q?' he cocked a hand to his ear, anticipating the applause.

'I never wished for this, and you know it,' Chakotay hissed, dropping his arm from around Kathryn's shoulders and moving forward aggressively.

Q was growing tired of the tattooed nuisance, and it was lucky for Chakotay that Captain Janeway chose that moment to intervene.

'So we're to be your prisoners here, then,' she found her voice at last, though it was flat, somehow - bitter but resigned.

'Not prisoners,' Q had the face of an injured puppy. 'Consider yourselves my guests. I've prepared this world for you to enjoy! A private Eden, if you will. Every plant is nutritious and delicious. There are animals for hunting if you desire meat, and countless natural wonders for you to explore and study. Look, I'll even throw in a house with a bath, seeing as I know how much you like them,' he clicked his fingers and a cosy little cabin appeared, smoke already rising from the chimney.

'We're not guests, Q,' Chakotay said darkly. 'Guests can leave.'

'But you can leave whenever you like, commander,' the Q corrected him. 'You and Kathy are two of the most widely experienced space explorers in the entire human race - both scientists and captains in your own right. I'm sure you can put those clever heads together and figure out a way to leave this place and get home... if you really want to go back, that is. With so much free time to spend in one another's good company, you might find you'd prefer to stay.'

'If you won't help by returning us to Voyager, can't you at least provide us with some equipment we can use to help ourselves?' Chakotay pushed. 'If we could just have access to a communication device? A small vessel?...'

'Ah... but that would be cheating, wouldn't it,' Q's eyelids flared playfully. 'Now, I'm sorry to love you and leave you, sweeties, but I must be getting on. Q Junior celebrated a big milestone today - made his first star, the dear little scamp, and I promised him we'd take a quick trip together eight billion years or so into the future so we can watch it explode. Parenthood. I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier!'

He returned to the breakfast table and knocked back one last gulp of coffee for the road.

'Before I go,' he added casually, 'I should admit to one small fib... Well, not a fib, exactly, so much as an exaggeration. Not everyone on Voyager is excited about being back in Federation Space. I checked in on the crew after they took their big leap across the galaxy and a few of them are, frankly, quite glum. Seven of Nine is expecting to be interrogated and dissected in the name of Science, and since the Maquis freedom fighters and their colonies were wiped out during your little sojourn across the Delta Quadrant - thousands dead and the rest behind bars, I hear - nobody is quite sure what's to become of Voyager's crew members who originally served on the Val Jean. Mr Neelix is thrilled to be on the homecoming team, of course, but I was sorry I missed the opportunity of meeting his former partner, Kes - that little Ocampan elf you kept in the airponics bay. A shame really. I think I would have enjoyed getting to know her...'

Nobody was listening to him anymore. The news of the Maquis defeat hit Chakotay like a punch to the guts, and Kathryn was still reeling from the realisation that Voyager had arrived home without her. Neither of them had the will to protest when Q raised his hand and pressed finger to thumb, and when they found themselves standing alone on the beautiful, alien planet, a silence settled over them - too thick to penetrate. Q was gone. Voyager was gone, and with it, their hope of ever reaching Earth. They were trapped on Eden. This was their new reality, and somehow they would have to accept it.

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Author's Note:

Bombshell! Q may well be the devil. Voyager might be home, making Kathryn's ultimate goal a reality, but I think she would have rather died than been left behind.

Nasty Q really twisted the dagger by telling Chakotay about the Maquis too - news appropriated from Message in a Bottle, mid Season 4. If J/C thought they were alone in the Delta Quadrant before, they are about to be faced with true loneliness. How they react now will make or break them.

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	4. Chapter 4

Chakotay was the first to move. He picked up a rock and threw it as far as he could, letting out a guttural cry to release the pressure that was building in his chest and throat. The Maquis were defeated. Dead or imprisoned. Whole colonies of innocent civilians wiped out, along with hundreds of men and women he'd fought beside in battle - cut down for resisting against Cardassian oppression and Starfleet convenience.

He bent for another rock and hurled it with more severity, giving expression to the hatred and helplessness in his heart. What would they do to Voyager's former-Maquis when they made it back to Earth? Demotion? Criminal proceedings? Incarceration? The New Zealand Penal Settlement wasn't going to be anywhere near harsh enough to satisfy the generals of the Cardassian Guard. He thought of B'Elanna in a Cardassian prison camp, and his anger doubled.

A hand touched his arm, drawing him out of his rage, and Kathryn was there - looking into his eyes with the same desperate grief as his own.

'I'm so sorry, Chakotay,' she didn't know how to comfort him. 'All your people... it's a terrible loss.'

The man worked hard to steady his breathing and connect with the woman in front of him, remembering that she was suffering too.

'I'm not the only one who's lost something, Kathryn,' he gripped her shoulder in sympathy. 'Voyager was everything to you. Bringing her home was the goal you'd worked for every day since I met you. To miss out on seeing her safely there. It's just...,' he was too upset to find the words.

'There's nothing we can say to make it better,' Kathryn glanced away, unwilling to engage with the emotions that were churning inside of her, threatening to surface, and when she looked up at him again her eyes were bright with unshed tears. 'Come on, Chakotay. It's cold out here. Let's just go inside.'

She turned away from him and started walking slowly towards the cabin with the smoke coming from the chimney - one hand trailing out behind her, asking him to follow.

Chakotay didn't want to go into the house that Q had made for them, but he also didn't want to be alone, so he took the hand that was offered and let Kathryn lead him in through the front door. They walked through the cabin, looking without interest at the comfortable rooms and cosy touches. There was an open living area at the far end of the hallway, with a fireplace on the side with the couch and a simple kitchen on the other. Kathryn found the food replicator and instinctively ordered two cups of sweetened coffee, but by the time she'd carried the mugs over to Chakotay at the couch she'd lost all desire to drink. She discarded them on the coffee table and lowered herself down beside her commander. No, not her commander anymore. They didn't have a ship. Her... what was he now? Her friend. Her only friend.

For the longest time, both of them just sat and stared at the wall opposite, the silence present like a living entity in the room - a dark void that gaped between them - until Chakotay's arm crept out and pulled Kathryn to his side. She didn't know how much she needed him until then, and she sagged into his body like a dead weight, turning her torso toward him so they could cling together for comfort. No tears fell, but their breathing was quick and uneven as she buried her face into his shoulder and he hid against her hair.

Eventually, Kathryn shifted and Chakotay released his hold on her, pulling back to study her face.

'What do you need?' he asked softly, ready to give her anything - be anything - if it helped to take away the glazed, hollow look that had appeared in her eyes.

The woman's lips turned down at the corners and she pressed them together to maintain her control. 'Just... some time.' Time to think, to remember, to forget. Most of all to sleep. She'd experienced grief before with the death of her father, and there was nothing more exhausting. 'I'll be in the bedroom if you need me,' she brushed her hand against Chakotay's knee and stood like she was already half-asleep.

He let her go, hunching a little as Kathryn's presence receded and, in its place, the room filled up again with lonely silence.

'Chakotay?' she paused at the door to the hallway.

'Yes?' he half-stood and twisted around to look at her. She was vulnerable, dishevelled.

'Don't leave?' It was an order and a request.

'Never, captain,' Chakotay promised her, and some unconscious part of her knew she had the strength to face whatever came next.

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Chakotay slept as well. The cabin had two bedrooms, connected by a shared bathroom complete with toilet, vanity and sonic shower. (If there was a bath as Q said, it must have been outside.) He volunteered to take the smaller of the two rooms, which looked more like it had been designed for a teenage boy than a grown man. The furniture was spartan. Only a single bed, an empty cupboard, and a reading desk that had a shelf above it containing a selection of books inspired by some of Earth's wildest imaginations - Gulliver's Travels, From the Earth to the Moon, The Time Machine, Robinson Crusoe, Homer's Odyssey. All stories about the colourful and sometimes ill-fated voyages of travellers far from home - probably Q's idea of a joke. The only other decoration in the room was a random scattering of stars stuck to the ceiling to give the impression of a nighttime sky.

When he wasn't dozing in and out of sleep, Chakotay lay on his back - his feet hanging just over the end of the mattress - staring up at the stars and listening for any signs of movement from the woman in the other room. He occasionally heard a sound - the flush of the toilet, a trickle of water in the sink, the click of the bathroom door closing from the other side. But she didn't cry out in distress, she didn't come to his door for comfort, and she didn't leave her room to eat.

Chakotay wasn't particularly hungry himself but towards the end of the first day he shuffled out to the kitchen, still barefoot and in his dressing gown, and ordered a bowl of leek and mushroom soup from the replicator. It was something his grandmother used to make for him when he was sick as a child. The soup didn't taste as nice as hers, but the smell was close enough to the real thing, and the high nutrient content gave his body the energy boost it sorely needed. Feeling somewhat revived, his eyes turned to the window. It was fair weather outside and he could do with some exercise after so many idle hours indoors. He'd promised Kathryn he wouldn't leave her, but a short walk should be acceptable, so long as he stayed in sight of the house.

The view from the front door was idyllic - an Eden, indeed. The spring they'd camped by the previous night seemed larger than he remembered it - sparkling blue against a backdrop of pink and orange mountains - and there was a small stream flowing away from it that effectively formed a boundary line around their property. To the side of the cabin was the bath Q had promised, under an awning that jutted out from main roof. It had a water pump running to it from the spring, and heating supplied by an energy source that was linked to the house itself. Chakotay wouldn't have minded a soak to wash away his troubles, but he wanted Kathryn to be the one to christen the tub, seeing as it was her special thing. Instead, he headed down to the spring, stripped off to his underwear and waded in. The water was cold, bracing, and it woke up a part of his mind that had laid dormant up until now.

Kes. Q said something about her just before he left. Why would an omnipotent being, who could travel through time as easily as Chakotay was currently moving through water, be disappointed that he'd missed seeing a member of Voyager's crew? If he wanted to communicate with Kes, couldn't he just go back in time and meet up with her at some other point convenient to his cosmic schedule? The swimmer kicked out towards the opposite bank and completed a few slow laps while he mulled over the problem without success, then dripped his way out onto dry land towards his waiting pile of clothing. A breeze had picked up and Chakotay shivered involuntarily. The task of trying to rationalise the words and actions of a capricious god would have to wait until later. There were three things he intended to do now and none of them involved Q. Get dry, get warm, and check on Kathryn.

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Author's Note:

How cute are J/C when they're supporting one another?! I love them :)

I didn't want Kathryn to react to her situation the same way as she did in Resolutions (busying herself with trying to concoct an escape plan). Instead, I borrowed her darker mood from Night (Season 5 - when she withdrew to her quarters and let Chakotay & Tuvok take care of things on the bridge.) Any guesses as to what version of Kathryn we're going to see when she finally makes it out of bed?

This is the shortest chapter of the whole story - the angst is important, but I don't enjoy wallowing in it for too long... Best of all, there's an extra long Chapter 5 to look forward to next & it's a game changer.

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	5. Chapter 5

The door to Kathryn's bedroom opened at around midday on the third day.

Chakotay was reading at the kitchen table when he heard the click of the door handle. He discarded his book instantly, rising to greet the sleeper and masking his concern behind a soft, ready smile.

'Good morning,' Kathryn padded across to join him at the table. The Starfleet jacket was gone and she wore her hair loose, perhaps to cover the bare skin exposed by the low neckline of her nightdress. She seemed herself, or near enough. Her skin was a little paler and there was a new tiredness in her eyes that would probably always be a part of her now, but she was otherwise calm and alert.

'Welcome back, captain,' Chakotay clasped her elbow and was surprised when she stretched up to kiss him lightly on the cheek. 'What was that for?' he searched her face for the meaning. Captain Janeway normally showed affection through a glance, a quirk of the mouth, a casual touch. The kiss was only a fleeting brush of the lips, but coming from her it was an act of openness and intimacy that marked a new phase in their relationship.

'For still being here,' she smiled a little sadly, '...and I think we can drop the captain now, all things considered,' Kathryn added, moving off to the replicator. She chose tea - not coffee, her companion noted - and returned to the table with a pot for two. 'How long was I out?' she asked, pouring them both a cup.

'Two and a half days,' he accepted the drink with a thank you.

Kathryn winced, rubbing a knot from her neck. 'I guess that explains the aches and pains. How are you coping, Chakotay?' a guilty thought crept into her mind. She wasn't sure if he had needed time alone too, or if she'd just resigned him to nearly three days of utter loneliness when he'd needed a friend the most. 'What have you been up to? Have I missed anything since...?' she trailed off, not ready to discuss the subject of Q and Voyager just yet.

'It's taking me a while to adjust,' Chakotay admitted, 'but I think I'm going to be okay.' Their hands met across the table in understanding and neither of them was in a rush to pull away. 'Though I have to say, it's been remarkably quiet here without you. I'm afraid I've taken to humming to myself around the house just so I could hear the sound of a human voice.'

'I didn't know you could sing,' Kathryn retrieved her hand to lift her teacup, eying him with a new interest. 'I'd like to hear that sometime.'

'You wouldn't say that if you heard me,' he gave a self-depreciating chuckle. 'Tone deaf. Fighting cats can hold a better tune.'

The woman smiled into her tea, and Chakotay rejoiced when she looked up from under her lashes with the hint of a twinkle in her eyes.

'Apart from scaring the native bird-life with the occasional burst of musical entertainment, I've mostly been staying close to the house; foraging for fresh food in the garden; getting a headstart on splitting logs to restock the woodpile. I've also been taking a daily swim in the spring outside. The water's a little chilly, but it's a good place to think - about how we got here, and how we might get back home... And there's a bookshelf in my room that's kept me well occupied for the rest of the-...'

'Your room?' another voice joined them.

Chakotay bashed his knee underneath the table in his haste to rise and Kathryn startled so violently she spilt her tea. A boy had just appeared on the couch in the living area - about twelve years of age, with a flop of wavy brown hair over his forehead and wearing a pint-sized Starfleet captain's uniform. His feet were up on the coffee table and there was a bored, disdainful expression on his face, which looked unmistakably like his father's.

'The room clearly belongs to me, Uncle Chucky. Didn't you see the Q I carved on the door?'

Chakotay had seen it, but he'd guessed it was just a message Q had left there to taunt him - like an animal scenting to mark their territory.

'You're... Q Junior?' he looked from the boy to Kathryn in disbelief. 'But you were only a baby when we saw you, what... six months ago?'

Junior rolled his eyes. 'I'm a Q, remember?! Hi, Aunt Kathy,' he got up from the couch and wandered over to her, taking her hand to kiss it. 'What's a nice captain like you doing in a place like this?'

Kathryn did not appreciate being mocked by an infant - even if that infant was a god. She shook his hand away. 'I'm here because your father trapped us here. Did he happen to tell you why?'

The boy's face soured. 'No. He did not. As it turns out, my father doesn't trust me with anything anymore. He tricked me into staying in this brain-numbing hellhole too, not that you humans could possibly understand what I'm going through.' He plopped down at the kitchen table and glared out the window opposite, his head sunk into his fists.

Kathryn glanced to Chakotay, both of them at a loss. 'What do you mean, he tricked you?' she approached the boy carefully, touching a hand to his arm. 'Are you trapped here as well?'

The young Q looked like he wasn't going to answer, then he turned on his godparents with accusing eyes.

'You know what I've been doing while the pair of you lazed around for the last three days? I made a star and watched it go supernova!' he sprung up from his chair and started pacing around the room like a caged bear cub.

'Dad was so proud of me he said I was ready for the next step in my Q training. He said if I wanted to learn how to maintain universal order, I could practice by turning this planet into a habitable environment then try making myself some pets - simple carbon-based lifeforms like yourselves. I leapt at the challenge, but my supportive father didn't want to stick around and watch me work - he made up some excuse about having important grown-up business to attend to and snapped off. I tried to follow - to see if he needed some help - but realised I was stuck here. That's when you two turned up. I think Q got so bored of parenthood he wanted to be rid of me, so he sent you here to Eden... to babysit,' he concluded bitterly.

'If Q left you on this planet, it doesn't necessarily mean he wants to be rid of you,' his godmother suggested diplomatically. 'Perhaps he did it to protect you?'

Junior raised an eyebrow. 'I'm a Q! Protect me from what?'

Touché. Kathryn admitted defeat.

'Or is it possible that Q believes you're a danger to others?' Chakotay frowned, studying the child keenly. 'The full power of the Q in the hands of one who is inexperienced and still learning self-control presents a risk to the whole universe. Have you done something to warrant your father's mistrust? Are you a danger to us right now?'

The boy stuck out his jaw, offended by the suggestion but realising he could not strike out in anger or it would prove the human's point.

'I might have messed with a couple of Borg cubes once or twice,' he shrugged, 'and the mining consortiums in the Nekrit Expanse have had more than their usual share of electrokinetic storm activity over the last few months, but apart from that I'm as harmless as a fly. You realise I've been stuck on this planet ever since you arrived, and I haven't harmed you once, if that's any proof of my pure intentions?'

'Almost three days without your powers? That must have seemed like a lifetime for a Q,' Kathryn felt for the boy. She didn't appreciate being caged up either.

'I didn't say that Dad revoked all my powers,' Junior corrected her. 'Just the power to leave... and the power to influence either of you, apparently. I did try turning Uncle Chucky into an amphibious lifeform while he was taking a swim the other day - just temporarily, to see if he'd go faster with fins - but nothing happened. I guess Old Buzz-kill wanted to make sure I didn't mess with the hired help.'

'I'll remember to thank Q for that the next time I see him,' Chakotay muttered under his breath.

The boy slouched back over to the couch and flopped down on it, cocking one leg up on the armrest. 'Things have been pretty boring around here, to be honest, but I've found a few ways to pass the lonely hours... Shifting some mountains around. Creating a new snake-lizard hybrid with a camouflage adaptation more effective than Romulan cloaking technology. Increasing the size and oxygen content of the spring outside to stimulate microbial growth and trigger an accelerated evolution event that will populate the waterways of this entire world in less than a week... And devising an escape plan to get off this planet,' he watched his godparents from beneath lazy eyelids and saw them exchange meaningful glances.

'But how do you plan to escape?' Kathryn sounded doubtful. 'You just told us that Q stripped you of your power to leave.'

'I'm not going to escape,' Q Junior's mouth spread into a slow smile. 'I'm going to help you escape, and then you are going to return the favour.'

There was a desperate, wordless conversation between the two humans before Chakotay elected to speak on their behalf.

'What exactly do you have in mind?'

The young Q smirked. They were interested. His plan was already halfway there.

'I've made a careful study of the planet and its atmosphere, and there appears to be a forcefield made up of predominantly polaric ion particles about fifty kilometres above the surface,' he explained. 'While I am unable to cross the field myself, I conducted some experiments and discovered that less-complex forms of matter can pass through it. I believe my father has us surrounded by a sort of anti-subspace bubble that prevents lifeforms native to subspace planes from crossing it - namely, me. All we've got to do is send you two up in a shuttle to get you off-world, then you can contact my father and plead for my release. Once you've secured my freedom, I'll make sure that Q returns you to your ship... and that backwater region of the Alpha Quadrant you've both been pining after for the last three years.'

'That's your plan?' Kathryn baulked. 'For starters, we don't have a shuttle. Then there's the issue with the forcefield. You must realise how dangerous it would be to fly a shuttlecraft anywhere near polaric ion particles. A single mis-navigation could cause an ion explosion that would wipe out all lifeforms on this planet - you and us included. And if we somehow made it through the forcefield, how do propose we find Q to negotiate with him? He could be literally anywhere in the universe!... And if some miracle led us right to your father, what makes you believe he would consider granting our demands?'

Q Junior laced his hands behind his head and reclined back on the couch.

'Give me a little credit, Aunt Kathy,' he sighed. 'Even a baby Q can create any form of matter. I can just make you a shuttle,' he clicked his fingers and Chakotay rushed over to the window to see a sleek-looking Aeroshuttle appear just beyond the stream outside their cabin. It was a relatively new class of runabout that was designed to integrate into the underside of the saucer section in Intrepid class starships. Chakotay had seen the blueprints but never flown one. Voyager's Aeroshuttle had been installed not long before Captain Janeway had left on her mission to the Badlands, however it still required final outfitting and flight testing - something that had dropped way down the list of priorities once Voyager got stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

'The Aeroshuttle doesn't achieve the warp speeds of the Danube-class runabouts you're used to,' the Q child explained, 'but it has a four-hundred-and-fifty percent increase in atmospheric flight and hover endurance over standard shuttlecraft, which should help you navigate through any spatial turbulence on your way out. As for getting through the polaric ion field without blowing us all to microparticles, I've found a sweet spot in the particle field where the ion concentration is one eighth of its average density, so that's your escape route. Finding Q won't be a problem - as soon as he realises you've broken free of his trap he'll be the one racing to find you... And getting him to agree to our demands? You helped my father negotiate a ceasefire in the Continuum's civil war, Aunt Kathy. Asking Q for a small favour on behalf of his only, beloved son should be a sinch!'

Kathryn turned to Chakotay and lowered her voice, her gaze fluttering restlessly from one side of his face to the other. 'What do you think? Is it worth the risk?'

'I don't know,' he replied tersely. 'This is the Q we're dealing with. If anything goes wrong...'

'Don't forget to consider the reward if things go right, though,' Q Junior was eavesdropping from the couch. He clicked his fingers and two neat piles of clothing appeared on the coffee table. Red Starfleet uniforms - his and hers.

'We'll need some time to discuss your proposal before we can agree,' Kathryn warned, feeling Chakotay's eyes boring into the side of her head.

'Take all the time you need,' the Q stretched like a cat and got up from the couch. 'But try to be done by tomorrow morning. I'm already bored out of my brain here, and people tend to find me annoying when I'm bored. I'm going to my room so you can hash it out. Call me when you've figured out that my plan is excellent and you've decided to help,' he clicked his fingers and disappeared.

Kathryn approached the coffee table and reached for the nearest uniform like she was afraid it might grow teeth and bite her. She turned slowly and handed it to Chakotay, her eyes brimming with questions, fear and - though she was trying to hide it, even from herself - the tiniest glimmer of hope.

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Author's Note:

Did anybody see Q Junior's entrance coming? I hoped to make him bratty, but not a total ass. (He had many redeeming qualities in the Q2 episode in Season 7, so I figured he'd be fairly approachable as an infant - before he'd had a chance to become disenchanted with the universe.)

The Aeroshuttle is a real Voyager thing. It's on all the schematics - the writers just never had the opportunity to bring it out for a spin in the series. (Apparently it was too similar to another craft that was being revealed in a new ST movie around the same time, so they decided to not to use it on the show.)

What do you think J/C will decide to do? I personally wouldn't touch Junior's idea with a pole the length of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way! :P Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	6. Chapter 6

'Are you decent?' Chakotay knocked on Kathryn's door then emerged from the adjoining bathroom looking fresh in his skivvy and black dress pants, his commander's pips held loosely in his hand.

They'd agreed to take the Aeroshuttle for a test flight. He was ready to leave but she was not.

Captain Janeway sat perched on the edge of the bed with her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail - only half-dressed in her grey singlet top and trousers. Her undershirt was still folded on her lap and she was staring at the pair of Starfleet jackets that hung waiting for them on the wardrobe doors.

'Cold feet?' Chakotay asked, leaning against the wall.

When she looked up, Kathryn's face was tired. 'Literally and figuratively, it seems,' she sent him a wry smile and bent down to pull on her socks. 'And you?'

'Trying not to get ahead of myself, mostly,' he fiddled with the three tiny, metal discs in his palm. 'I'd like to believe Q Junior's plan could work, but I don't want to get my hopes up about leaving this planet until I'm sure it's even a possibility. Maybe I'll feel more at ease once we've tested the shuttle.'

'You and me both,' Kathryn agreed.

When she'd finished with her boots and slipped the skivvy over her singlet, she stood and held out her hand.

'Give them to me, Chakotay,' she prompted, adding his officers' pips to her own and setting the pile down on the bedside table. 'We don't have to make a decision about leaving right away. Let's just take the day to consider our options and approach things one step at a time - starting with the most important task of all,' she handed him a combadge and her grave expression turned sly. 'Deciding who gets dibs on piloting the new shuttle!'

Chakotay's mouth eased into a smile and they made their way out of the cabin together.

There was no official command structure today, but when they entered the Aeroshuttle they unconsciously settled into their usual flight positions, with Kathryn in charge on the left and Chakotay at the navigational controls on the right.

'So, what are we working with here?' Kathryn studied the control panel to familiarise herself with the new layout while her co-pilot commenced the pre-flight checks.

'Thrusters operational,' he gave her the readings. 'Impulse and warp engines appear to be integrated - with a maximum threshold of warp factor three. Q Junior wasn't exaggerating. Propulsion and inertial dampeners are nominal at more than four-hundred percent standard shuttle capacity.'

Kathryn nodded, quietly impressed. 'I've got shields, phasers and comm system all operable,' she read from her own display. 'We should be clear to go. Computer, initialize cold launch sequence.'

There was a hum as the shuttle's hybrid power nacelles fired into life, lighting blue windows in the wings.

'Everything's looking good so far,' the pilot confirmed. 'Let's find out what this little ship is capable of. What do you see on sensors, Chakotay?'

His hands darted over the backlit control interface. 'Long range navigation is scrambled - I'm not reading anything past the polaric ion forcefield, but we've got a clear path anywhere within fifty kilometers of the planet's surface.'

'Let's stay low, then. Take us to a cruising altitude of ten thousand feet to start with, and set a course to circumnavigate the planet. I'd like to have a proper look at where we are. Engage impulse thrusters.'

'Yes ma'am,' Chakotay nodded, and in the next second they were airborne.

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The Q child had done an excellent job of transforming the alien world of Eden into an Earth-like terrain. The small oasis Kathryn and Chakotay took off from was a valley surrounded by craggy slopes which quickly gave way to steeper foothills and mountain ranges. Beyond that, the land swept down again towards a large body of water.

Kathryn instructed her co-pilot to move to a lower altitude so they could take a closer look, and that was the first sign of trouble. She gripped at the edge of the control panel in alarm as the shuttlecraft commenced a steep dive.

'Talk to me, Chakotay!' she demanded swiftly. 'Attitude controls must be offline! Engage emergency anti-grav thrusters!'

The man in the chair next to her remained completely at ease. He actually grinned as he levelled the craft expertly, circling around to take another pass over the massive lake system below them - skimming only a few feet above the water's surface.

'You said you wanted to see what she was capable of!' he chuckled as Kathryn's face morphed from panic to relief to annoyance. 'What do you think of the handling?' Chakotay dipped the starboard wing another five degrees to follow the shoreline of the lake as it turned to the right, before gradually straightening up again.

'Very impressive,' Kathryn narrowed her eyes at him, even as the thrill-centre of her brain was flooding her body with a cocktail of endorphins - making her want to take the plunge all over again, 'but don't do that again unless you warn me first! Increase altitude to eight thousand feet and hold steady or I'll transfer flight control to the onboard computer.'

'Aye, captain,' Chakotay complied with an unapologetic smile.

'Now for my turn,' the woman shot him a warning look and he removed his hands from the controls. 'Engaging full thrusters.'

It would have taken the impulse engines of a typical shuttlecraft several seconds to increase to full speed at this low altitude, but the Aeroshuttle shot forwards as if aerodynamic drag was a nonexistent concept.

'Not bad,' Chakotay's smile widened. 'We have to tell B'Elanna about this as soon as we get back to Voyager. Getting the Aeroshuttle up and running should be Engineering's top priority.'

He realised what he'd said a second after he uttered it. Chakotay glanced over at Kathryn and the excitement of test-flying their new toy dampened in moments. Voyager was on the other side of the galaxy - tens of thousands of light years away - and they couldn't even begin the journey home until they'd made it past a polaric ion particle field and a pair of squabbling Qs without getting themselves killed. B'Elanna wouldn't be getting their message about work to Voyager's Aeroshuttle for a very long time.

Kathryn ordered the computer to switch to auto-navigation and sat back against her chair, turning her head to look at the man beside her.

'We need to talk about this, Chakotay,' she began quietly. 'What are we going to do? Go along with Q Junior's plan or...'

Chakotay sighed and swivelled his chair to face her. 'I've been thinking about it almost constantly since the moment we arrived here... There are a lot of variables, but in the end it all comes down to two choices. Live out our years on this planet - comfortable but alone - or risk our lives tomorrow for the small chance that we might make it home... Kathryn?' the wing nacelles hummed softly as he shifted his weight forward and reached for her hand.

The strong, self-contained part of Kathryn wanted to shy away from the frank intensity of the man's gaze, but the new closeness they'd discovered - or rediscovered - over the past few days gave her the courage to hear him out.

'...I was ready to start a life with you when we were stranded once before,' Chakotay reminded her earnestly, 'and I hope it's not out of line to tell you my feelings on that matter have not changed... but New Earth was an entirely different situation. The virus we contracted on that planet would have meant certain death if we'd left the surface. Here, we actually have the chance to escape. A small chance, but a chance. I don't think we can discount that without considering all the options carefully.'

Kathryn's eyes locked to his for an eternity before she finally spoke. 'It's not out of line, Chakotay,' her voice was low with emotion. 'But that only makes the decision even harder.'

'How so?' he wished he could read her mind. She so often masked her private thoughts and he didn't want to misunderstand her.

'Because I spent the last twelve months wondering what might have happened between us if we'd stayed on New Earth,' she confessed hoarsely. 'Because I spent the last three days coming to terms with the fact that Voyager is gone for good this time - and reminding myself that if I have to be stuck at the opposite end of the galaxy from home then I'm damn lucky to be sharing that experience with you...'

Chakotay brushed his thumb over the back of her hand - the only physical manifestation of his desperate desire to sooth her away her confusion and pain. The tiny movement nearly broke her, but Kathryn Janeway was determined not to lose control.

'...Because I've arrived at the same crossroads Q showed me in the vision of my future. Am I able to accept the fate I've been dealt - to see the good in it, to use it as an opportunity to grow as a person and set new goals - or am I prepared to sacrifice the things I hold most dear... the person I hold most dear,' she amended, reaching out to mould her hand against Chakotay's cheek, 'just for the chance at achieving an impossible dream?'

She clammed up then, unable to express another word without compromising herself too far, and Chakotay turned his head - capturing her hand to his cheek and pressing a single kiss to her palm. This final act of intimacy on top of everything else that had happened was too much for Kathryn to process and she pulled away, but Chakotay didn't take offence. He respected Kathryn's limits and he wasn't going to push her any further than she wanted to go.

'I think there's a coastline coming up ahead,' he announced to change the subject, noting the blue-tinged curve of the horizon-line through the front viewport window. 'Are you in the mood for some fresh air?'

'More than you know,' Kathryn nodded gratefully and shifted her chair back around to face the front. 'Take us down. Slowly, this time.'

'Commencing descent,' Chakotay acknowledged with a soft chuckle and returned his focus to the navigational controls - acting as though nothing unusual had happened when Kathryn's hand slipped onto his knee.

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Author's Note:

Kathryn is at her crossroads. What would you choose - Chakotay forever or likely death tomorrow? Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	7. Chapter 7

They walked along the beach - together but quiet in their own thoughts - keeping to the wet part between the soft sand and the sea. The weather was slightly overcast, which matched Kathryn's mood, but the fresh air and exercise was just what she needed and soon she was beginning to feel more relaxed. Alas, too relaxed. An unexpected swell caught her off-guard, splashing halfway up the back of her thighs and soaking her to the skin. She shrieked in surprise, overbalanced, and fell flat on her backside in the shallow water.

Chakotay rushed to help her up, worried this last injury to Kathryn's pride might be her breaking point, but when her shoulders started to shake it was not from tears but a burst of throaty, self-deprecating laughter. Hoisting her to her feet, Chakotay grinned and wrapped the woman close to his body to shield her from the biting ocean wind - the simple, lighthearted moment making all their worries and uncertainties easier to bear. A short time later, they were sitting together in the shelter of a sandy bluff; Kathryn cocooned in a silver survival blanket while her pants were laid out to dry, and Chakotay close at her side - his hand linked with hers and their shoulders touching.

'Sorry. About before - in the shuttle,' Kathryn was the first to talk. 'I didn't mean to be so melodramatic. It's just... such a big decision we're faced with and I don't want to get it wrong.'

'There's nothing to apologise for,' Chakotay said simply.

Waves crashed, washed and whispered.

'If we choose to stay here,' Kathryn broke their comfortable silence, tentative but curious, 'would you want to start a family?'

'Yes,' Chakotay answered truthfully. He was done with holding back. Their whole future was hanging in the balance and he wanted her to know where he stood. 'If you want to as well, then yes. I'm ashamed to tell you, I was not a good son. When I was younger I rejected the love, the wisdom and the connection to culture that my father was trying to offer me. By the time I realised my error it was too late to get that time with him back... But if I could have a child of my own,' his expression grew wistful, 'to pass on the things my father taught me - the lessons I've learnt in my own life - it would be a way of honouring him, and reminding myself that I am part of something greater. That my story stretches from the past, present and into the future. Is that... too much?' he knew it was a lot to share with her when only days ago they'd been just colleagues and friends.

'No. For you, it's just right,' she squeezed his hand for courage. 'I can't say I've thought too seriously about having children - my ship and crew have always come first - but under these circumstances... with you, I think I'd be willing to give it a try.'

Chakotay glanced at her in awe and disbelief then squinted out to the horizon. The moisture that formed in his eyes might have been due to the glare of the overcast sky.

'There's another side to this coin, though,' Kathryn interrupted his thoughts. 'You and I choosing a future alone together is one thing, but if we did decide to have a child that would mean condemning them to a future without friends, without a partner, without a community - eventually they would even lose us. Is that fair? Is that right?'

The man's jaw tightened and he was silent for a long time before he finally turned to face his companion. 'No. It's not fair, not right,' he admitted, though it broke his heart to do so. 'So if we stay, we stay just two... And if we choose to go?'

Kathryn held his gaze gravely and laid out the scenarios that had been playing through her mind. 'We might get lucky and find a way to return to the Alpha Quadrant and Voyager. We might become stranded on some other planet, or wander the galaxy for the rest of our lives unable to complete our mission. We might wake up one day on Voyager with no memory that any of this even happened. Or we might die tomorrow in a polaric ion explosion and all this heartache will have been for nothing... I can see it now, Chakotay,' her eyes welled with the tears she'd been fighting so valiantly to hold at bay. 'Only one of those options is a future worth dying for, and no matter how much I want to get home, I can't justify those odds. We have to stay.'

Chakotay didn't agree or disagree. Instead, he reached up and pushed a strand of Kathryn's sea-swept hair back from her face, determined to appreciate every moment they had together, no matter the outcome.

'Do you remember that feeling you had after Voyager rescued us from New Earth?' he asked softly. 'Wondering what life might have been like if things had turned out differently? I know you Kathryn. If we choose to stay, for the rest of your life you'll be wondering what might have happened if we'd attempted the escape plan Q's child is offering us now. A life of doubt - wishing you were somewhere else - is only half a life. I don't want that for you. For either of us. I think we have to take the chance and try to leave.'

'But think of what we'd be giving up!' The ocean air was gusting freshly but Kathryn felt like she couldn't breathe. She'd only just admitted to herself that she could have a future with Chakotay. Maybe even a child. Was she willing to throw that all away on a chance?

'But we don't have to give anything up,' Chakotay promised her. 'If we die, we die proudly knowing we tried our hardest to be reunited with the family and friends we love... If we travel the galaxy for the rest of our lives and never reach our destination, I'll be honoured to take that journey at your side... If we forget everything tomorrow,' his voice thickened as he traced the curve of her cheek, 'then I have you, here and now, and that's more than I was ever hoping for. And if, by some miracle, we do make it back to Voyager and everything returns to the way it was before...' his eyes dipped to her lips then back up again, 'I hope you'll remember this...'

He slid one hand behind her neck and buried his fingers in her hair, drawing her nearer, and she tugged his shirt to close the distance between them - impatient to feel his mouth against hers.

'Junior to Aunt Kathy,' the combadge at Kathryn's chest sprung to life.

They both froze - noses touching, lips grazing, breath quick and shallow.

'Are you lost?' the god-child whinged. 'It's been two hours already. When are you coming back to the cabin?'

Kathryn sighed, turning to rest her face against Chakotay's cheek and feeling him chuckle softly.

'We're fine, Junior,' she tapped her badge to respond. 'Just stopped off to stretch our legs for a bit. We'll head back to you soon.'

'Your voice sounds different,' the boy was suspicious. 'Do I need to come over there and help you out of some predicament? Not that I'm planning to make a habit of rescuing you, but I can't have you and Uncle Chucky getting yourselves killed before you help me escape.'

'Thank you for the concern, but we're fine,' Kathryn assured him wearily, securing the silver blanket around her hips so she could stand up. 'On our way back to the shuttle now. Janeway out.'

Chakotay rose to his feet beside her. 'I think I see why Q left him behind,' he quipped, disappointed he'd been interrupted from the kiss he'd been waiting longer than a year to claim.

'Be nice,' the woman chastised him gently, catching his hand. 'He may be a Q but he's still just a child. We're his godparents. We should go to him.'

'Yes, I suppose we should,' Chakotay agreed reluctantly, bringing the back of her hand to his lips, 'but don't you think he could wait just a few minutes longer?'

She saw the longing in his eyes and it mirrored her own. 'Just a few minutes, then,' she surrendered, arms reaching greedily for the man's neck as she made a little lunge upwards to meet his eager, waiting lips.

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'What took you so long?' Q Junior was slouched on the couch, aimlessly lighting and extinguishing the fire in the hearth, when the cabin door opened and Chakotay entered the room alone.

'Well, we tested the Aeroshuttle's flight controls at various altitudes, then did a bit of sight-seeing while we talked through your proposal,' the man answered smoothly, placing an armload of vegetables he'd gathered from the garden onto the kitchen table. 'I'm not sure what your father would have to say about your creative efforts on this planet, but I suspect you'll pass this level of your Q training with flying colours.'

Junior re-lit the fire a final time and sat upright. 'So you've decided to help me, then?' he prompted impatiently.

Chakotay looked up from his mission to find a chopping board. 'As it happens, yes-'

'Excellent!' Q Junior jumped to his feet, ready for action. 'I'll add a few final touches to the shuttle and you can be on your wa-'

'Not yet,' Chakotay shot the boy a warning look. 'Your godmother and I are humans, remember. If you want this plan to succeed you need to let us eat and rest so we're functioning at our mental and physical best. We agree to your plan, provided that we don't leave until tomorrow. Right now, Kathryn is going to take a relaxing bath outside...'

The boy's eyes took on a salacious gleam as they slid across to the window, but Chakotay's glare discouraged him.

'...and I'm going to cook us some dinner. You can help too, if you're looking for something to do.'

Junior preferred to observe. 'Why are you preparing vegetables?' he asked with a critical gaze. 'You could just use the replicator and be done in a fraction of the time.'

'Hmm, you might think so,' Chakotay humoured him, 'but if you come and chop some onions for me, I might be willing to let you in on a little human secret,' he held up a knife and wiggled it to tempt him.

'Secret?' the boy ranged over to the kitchen bench and chopped his first onion in two seconds flat before reaching for another.

Chakotay shook his head and demonstrated how to remove the skin first, then dice the flesh into rough centimetre cubes.

'Faster isn't always better,' he explained as they worked. 'Some things in life turn out better if you give them a little time. I could replicate this dish in only a few moments, but when I cook it from scratch I have the power to decide exactly what ingredients to use and how to use them. Thicker slices of eggplant for a chewier texture, radish and fresh paprika for colour and heat, tomatoes for flavour and a squeeze of lemon for a tangy kick. While I am preparing the meal, I also have time to think about the nutritional value of what I am putting in my body and give respect to the spirits of the land on which the food was grown - or the god, in this case,' he sent a sidelong glance to the Q and nodded his thanks.

Q Junior paused from his chopping for half a moment, then slid the last of the ingredients into a large ovenproof dish that Chakotay had set out for him.

'It's still a massive waste of time, considering your miniscule lifespan,' he concluded dismissively. 'So do you eat it now?'

'After it cooks in the oven for sixty minutes and another twenty with the lid off,' Chakotay grinned at the Q's horrified expression and poured a simple stock over the dish before placing it the oven.

'So... if you say faster isn't better,' Q Junior leant against the kitchen bench while his housemate cleared away the dirty dishes, 'is that why you waited until today to finally kiss Aunt Kathy?'

Chakotay froze momentarily, thinking the Q was mocking him, but when he looked around the boy appeared to be genuinely curious.

'If I'd had my wish, I would have kissed Kathryn a long time ago, and many times since,' he admitted, pausing from his chores to pay the matter the attention it deserved, 'but I suppose the principle is the same... The time that I've had to wait has made me more appreciative of every aspect of our relationship together and built a sense of anticipation about what it might become.'

Junior's eyes widened in understanding. 'You're going to mate with her tonight, aren't you - in case it's your last night alive? That's why she's in the bath - to freshen up for the big event. Am I right?'

The man sighed. 'I am not having this discussion with a child.'

'A child?' the Q was aggrieved. 'I might have the body of a twelve year old boy, but I've lived the equivalent of hundreds of your lifetimes. I've travelled through time and space to the furthest reaches of the universe. I've made a star, terraformed a planet...'

Chakotay shrugged. 'That's easy stuff for a Q. Loving somebody is hardest thing you'll ever do. Come back to me when you've met the person who fascinates you, challenges you, infuriates you and inspires you to be better than you are, and then I'll give you the mating talk, if you still want to hear it.'

'Are all humans this philosophical?' Junior asked, amused.

'Only the wisest ones,' his mentor chuckled. 'I guess you're lucky you got lumped with me as your babysitter after all.'

A distant expression appeared on the young Q's face, briefly making him look his true age.

'Thanks for the cooking lesson, Uncle Chucky,' he patted Chakotay on the shoulder, 'but there's no way I'm sticking around for another hour or two until the food is ready. I'm heading out for a while... maybe pass the time with some more landscaping if I'm in the mood. Don't wait up for me... Have a good night, Aunt Kathy,' he called out the window.

The Q clicked once and nothing happened, then clicked again and he was gone.

Chakotay shook his head, perplexed, then turned as the cabin door opened and Kathryn entered the living room. She was barefoot, her hair pulled up loosely and damp at the shoulders - not unusual for a woman who had just exited the bath. What was unusual however, was the stunning black frock she was wearing - tight and low-necked in the bodice but flaring softly from the waist down. A gauze panel both hid and revealed the contours of her chest, and the knee-cropped length provided a marvellous view of her legs.

'The towel was gone. This was in its place,' she pulled at the skirt self-consciously. 'What's going on, Chakotay?'

He was so mesmerised he struggled to form an answer. 'I'm afraid this might be my fault,' he looked appropriately guilty. 'I was having a heart-to-heart with Q Junior about the value of patience and doing things in their proper time. I think he is under the impression that I'm going to... mate with you tonight, and this is his attempt at helping.'

Kathryn observed the man steadily, processing what he'd said, then padded closer and touched a hand to his chest. 'Well, depending on how tomorrow goes, this may be our last night together,' she murmured, her lips soft but beginning to curve with a playful smile at one corner. 'You've started out strongly by taking care of the babysitting and cooking me dinner. Keep playing your cards right and we'll see how the evening goes.'

She flounced off to replicate two glasses of wine, leaving the cool, unflappable Chakotay nervous and awestruck behind her.

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Author's Note:

They're going to do it! The escape plan, that is... and maybe 'it' as well ;) This was certainly a chapter of two halves - serious J/C at the beginning, and a silly (but hopefully endearing) glimpse into the godfather/godson dynamic between Chakotay & Q Jnr at the end. Mating - grin!

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	8. Chapter 8

The evening went very well.

Kathryn woke to the smell of coffee and the dip of the mattress as Chakotay climbed back into bed beside her.

'This is nice,' she smiled sleepily, reaching for his leg under the covers with one hand while clutching the bed-sheet to her chest with the other. It was one thing being naked with a man at night time. Very different in the bright light of morning.

'Any regrets?' he turned to pick up his coffee from the bedside table and Kathryn ogled the tattoo covering his left shoulder. It was a stylised design of a snake and an eagle – perhaps one of them was his spirit animal. She'd never known it was there until last night and now it seemed to be as natural a part of him as his hands or his face.

'Only that we didn't do that sooner,' she squeezed his thigh lightly.

'Do what, exactly?' he teased, setting down his coffee cup and sliding deeper in the sheets to lie next to her - one arm looping lightly across her waist, fingers grazing experimentally over her skin.

'Open up… let go… give in…,' she squirmed as he discovered a sensitive spot in the middle of her back.

'I think the phrase you're searching for is make love,' he murmured against her ear, morning stubble scratching softly at her cheek.

Love. It was a difficult word, with as many meanings as there were people to express it, but by all the familiar definitions he was right.

'I do love you,' she mumbled into his shoulder.

'Hmm?' he didn't hear her clearly, and assumed she couldn't have said what he thought she said.

She looked up at him and held his eyes. 'I love you, Chakotay.' There was nothing left to hide. Nowhere to run. She couldn't even roll over and look the other way because his arm was pinning her to the mattress.

Chakotay's face swam with wonder, pride and quiet acceptance.

'I think you're drunk,' his eyes smiled at her. 'Last night's wine hasn't worn off yet and your brain's all muddled up. Captain Janeway would never consent to being romantically involved with a member of her crew.'

'I'm not saying it again, if that's what you're angling for,' she warned.

'Don't worry,' he beamed indulgently. 'I'm sure I'll say it enough for the both of us.'

She yelped in surprise as he rolled suddenly, pulling her on top of him, and by the time they sat up again – flushed and pleasantly aching - their coffees had gone cold.

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Kathryn stepped out into the hallway in her Starfleet reds - hair piled high and four captain's pips at her throat - leaving Chakotay to finish showering and dressing at his leisure.

'Junior?' she called, wondering if the boy had returned to the cabin since his abrupt disappearance the night before.

'In here,' a voice came from the smaller bedroom.

Kathryn paused by the door and pushed it open a crack, wary of entering uninvited. The room was darkened, and a strange glow seemed to be emanating from the ceiling.

'Take your pick, Aunt Kathy - in or out, but for Q's sake, close the door!' came the stroppy order from the approximate location of the bed, and she made a snap-decision, stepping over the threshold and shutting the door behind her.

'What are you...? Oh...!' her neck craned up and her lips parted in disbelief.

'Look familiar?' Junior didn't turn his head to acknowledge her, his eyes fixed on the distinctive pattern of stars shining down upon them from the roof. What had been a few dozen glow-in-the-dark stickers only yesterday was now a vast galaxy of softly strobing pin-point lights.

'GN-z11,' she breathed, recognising the distinctive, irregular outline. 'The oldest known galaxy in the universe.'

'Very good,' the Q child warranted her a glance, 'though your classification for the great-grandfather of all galaxies lacks a certain... pizzazz. Still, it's comforting to learn that you humans know something of the worlds beyond your own, miniscule Milky Way.'

'It's been a while since I took Introduction to Astrophysics and Cosmology in my first year at Starfleet Academy, but there are some things you never forget,' Kathryn chuckled lightly, lowering herself to the floor and stretching out flat so she could look up at the stars without straining her neck. 'Imagine! Thirteen point four billion years old - nearly as old as the universe itself. I wonder what it would have been like to see it at its birth.'

'I've been back for a look. Not as interesting as you might think,' the Q shrugged. 'But this one I like...'

He blinked and the arrangement changed into something not dissimilar to a tadpole, complete with a bulbous swirl for the head and a long, narrow string of star systems streaming out from it like a tail.

'Ha! I remember Professor Stubbs telling us about this one,' the woman felt like a teenager again, eyes lit up in the dark. 'The trail was formed a hundred million years ago when the mutual gravitational attraction of two separate galaxies pulled them into close proximity with one another. The resultant tidal forces drew out the spiral galaxy's stars, gas, and dust to create the tail.'

'Tidal forces?' there was a scoff from the bed. 'That was Q - during an argument with my mother, apparently. She brought him before the Q Council and made him apologise to the High Judge for desecrating universal assets, but he managed to avoid serious punishment by claiming it was art. Called himself the Jackson Pollock of the Dark Energy Era, not that anyone on the Council appreciated the reference - twentieth century Earth is a backwater most Q would rather not associate themselves with.'

The boy fell quiet for a time, switching from one galaxy to another until a question from the floor distracted him.

'Where do you think he is now - your father?' A half-formed concern had been growing in Kathryn's mind. In her previous interactions with Q, the man had been annoyingly present. It was unnerving that he hadn't shown his face for four whole days. If it turned out that Q had given up on his parental responsibilities and absconded to another region of the universe, their plan to escape Eden and plead for Q Junior's release would be a failure before it had even begun.

The stars went black then reappeared in the plainly recognisable spiral formation of the Milky Way.

'He can't be too far away, thanks to the custody agreement,' Junior answered darkly, pulling himself up to sit against the pillow - one knee cocked and his hands wrapped around it.

'After I was born, my parents were brought before the Q Council of Judges - to defend their decision to reproduce without first consulting the Continuum. The High Judge wanted all three of us executed - nasty old bat - for introducing an unknown quantity to threaten the Continuum's beloved constant. Dad convinced them to spare us by promising to take personal responsibility for my development, and hailing my birth a symbol of peace for a fractured society. Many Q were lost in the civil war, but here was a new Q to take their place - an opportunity for the Continuum to see the universe through fresh eyes and consider a better future.'

Kathryn had eased herself up to sit with her back against the wall. She couldn't see the boy's expression but there was something dejected about his posture that made her pity him.

'That must be a lot of pressure to live up to - the new hope of a divided society.' She'd felt the same pressure at times herself, though to a much lesser degree, trying to reconcile the ideological differences between her Starfleet and Maquis crew.

'I try not to let it get to me,' Junior tossed his head to flip some hair away from his face, 'but sometimes I can't help letting off a little steam. The first time I met the Borg... well, let's just say my mother no longer speaks to me, and the Q Council were positively gleeful that they had an excuse to tighten my custody arrangements. My father now has to stay within a galaxy's distance of me at all times and report back regularly to the High Judge to discuss my behaviour and progress. The next time I break the rules it's bye-bye Q powers and hello mortal banishment - for both of us.'

Kathryn's heart went out to boy and she stood quietly - dragging the chair from the writing desk over to the beside and laying a hand on his arm.

'I'm sure you're going to make a great Q, Junior,' she encouraged him. 'Just look what you've done with this beautiful planet... and if all else fails, being mortal isn't such a bad thing. We might be simple lifeforms, lacking the capability of travelling to the ends of time and the universe like you,' she glanced up at the stars above them, 'but we share the same sense of curiosity about the world, the same creative spirit. The scope might be a little smaller, but it can be a full life if you want it to be, and it's all the more precious because of its transience.'

The Q looked at the woman's hand on his sleeve. Skin, flesh, blood. So delicate and frail. Until this moment, he'd been perfectly confident about the escape plan he'd devised - having his godparents use the Aeroshuttle to break through the force field that was trapping them on Eden - but now he wasn't so sure it was safe.

'Aunt Kathy... I know you and Uncle Chuky said you'd help me escape, but if you think it's too great a risk, I'll understand.'

Kathryn met his eyes in the half-darkness and shook her head. 'Chakotay and I have discussed this already. We understand the risk and we're willing to take it. For ourselves - and for you. I was there at your conception Junior, and I held you in my arms when you were baby newly born. Apart from Chakotay and my mother and sister back home, you're the closest thing I have to family, and family is something we mortals value very highly. You asked for my help, and I'm not going to let you down.'

There was a light knock on the door.

'Come in,' Kathryn called out, at the same time as the Q shouted, 'Go away!'

Chokaty entered the room cautiously. His hair was slicked back neatly, Starfleet uniform creaseless and boots gleaming.

'Close the door!' Kathryn and Junior both ordered as soon as he appeared in the doorway, and he stepped inside, peering as his eyes adjusted to the dim.

'I've made the final checks and the Aeroshuttle's ready to go whenever we-,' he trailed off, gaze drawn to the twinkling Milky Way on the ceiling above. 'That's different,' he stated the obvious.

Q Junior rolled his eyes and turned to his godmother. 'I was thinking... is there anything I can do for you before you leave? For both of you?' he offered, suddenly not wanting them to go. If the escape plan failed and Q didn't come back for him, he might be stuck alone on this planet for millennia... and as much as he hated to admit it, these humans were starting to grow on him. 'Just a small gift - to say thank you for looking after me, and for good luck.'

Kathryn thought for a moment, and her eyes followed Chakotay's up to the spiraling arms of the galaxy above.

'Can you show us Earth?' she asked, quiet but hopeful.

The boy nodded once and blinked. Streaks of light seemed to rush towards them as their viewpoint shifted closer. Lone stars and blue-lit systems, purple nebulae, pure-white comets and sparkling space dust all scattered, leaving a single orange sun advancing from the edge of the ceiling.

Kathryn stood and clutched Chakotay's hand as silhouettes of the gas giants came into view. Neptune, Uranus, Saturn.

They saw Jupiter Station in peaceful orbit over the planet's angry bands of cloud - the birthplace of their starship's holographic doctor, and the destination of dozens of letters Kathryn had sent to her dear colleague Tuvok in her earlier days as a Starfleet captain.

The asteroid belt that Chakotay felt he owed his life to many times over, having spent more than a semester of his Starfleet years there to complete his advanced pilot training.

The shining flashes of spacecraft in the fleet yards above Mars, where Kathryn had first laid eyes on the USS Voyager.

And Earth. A blue marble enshrined in clouds, with Luna half-hidden in her shadow - one side lit by the sun, and the other dappled with the pale, web-like glow of so many Federation stations and colonies.

'Let's go home, commander,' Kathryn looked up at him in the darkness.

'Yes, captain,' he nodded, clasping her to his side.

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An hour later, the two Starfleet officers were seated side by side in the Aeroshuttle, their course set for the sweet spot in the polaric ion force field that lay between them and the rest of the universe.

'As a wise woman once said,' Q Junior had counselled them when they'd made their goodbyes, 'sometimes you just have to punch your way through!'

Chakotay recalled the advice now and winced. He was more of the 'calm and precise' mindset when it came to piloting spacecraft - especially navigating through space littered with explosive polaric ion particles - but they'd done everything they could to prepare for this moment and there was nothing left for him to do but engage full thrusters and brace for impact.

'Five... four... three...,' he looked across to Kathryn - both their faces painted with hope, determination and just a shadow of fear, 'two... one...'

The shuttle shuddered violently, lurching as though it had hit something solid. Turbulence in a ship the size of Voyager could be damaging. In a shuttle this small - even with the Q's modifications - it felt like they were beans being shaken in a can.

Shields down to sixty percent, the onboard computer intoned.

'How long until we make it through to the other side, commander?' the captain's voice shook with each savage pitch and tremor of the shuttle.

'Polaric radiation is interfering with the sensors,' Chakotay shouted over the sound of the straining hull, hands running frantically over the controls, 'but if Junior was right, we should be through it in another minute.'

Shield integrity down to thirty-two percent.

'I don't think we've got another minute,' Captain Janeway warned sharply as something exploded off their port side, and Chakotay fought to stabilise the shuttle with only one warp nacelle operational. Plasma streamed from the damaged wing and another explosion lit the forward viewport, momentarily blinding them.

Shields at eight percent.

'Full power to forward shields!' Kathryn ordered, gripping the armrests of her chair so tightly her knuckles turned white.

'Just a little... bit... longer,' Chakotay hissed through the smoke that was filling the cockpit, willing the Aeroshuttle to hold its integrity for this next moment, and the next.

For two blissful seconds, the shuttle's wild jerking ceased.

'We're clear!' Kathryn turned to her commander with a wild, triumphant look in her eyes, and that's when it happened.

Captain Janeway gasped as a pale ball of energy smashed into them, flinging her from her chair. The sheer force of the collision snapped Chakotay's torso backwards and there was a cracking sound as his head came down again upon the control panel in front of him.

'Chakotay!' Kathryn cried out hoarsely, her own body compromised by the piece of mangled bulkhead that was protruding from her side.

Chakotay did not rise, and when Kathryn let her eyes close for just a moment everything fell quiet and still.

The captain whimpered. Every part of her hurt, but at least that meant she was still alive. She forced her eyelids open and made out the blurry image of a man's face peering down at her, the space behind him flooded in light.

'Chakotay?'

'Well, that was unexpected,' a familiar voice japed.

It was Q. The senior.

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Author's Note:

And... breathe! Big action ending, but what's next? (Hint - it's going to be a gamechanger.) And J/C officially got together! That scene at the top of the chapter was a pure pleasure to write :)

GN-z11 & the Tadpole Galaxy are real - lots of beautiful images online if you'd like to take a look. I love science.

The inspiration for Chakotay's shoulder tat is a brilliant artwork by trailsofpaper on Tumblr - thank you to the artist for sharing such an amazing idea.

Why no M-rated sex scenes?: PWP is really popular in Voyager ff, but as much as I'd like to give you lashings of J/C indulging in bedroom bliss, all I can imagine is a tiny Kate Mulgrew sitting on my shoulder, tutting at me for putting her/her character in that position (or positions, as the case may be ;D). (If anybody is curious about my lemon writing abilities, my Vampire Academy pen name on fanfiction.net is Llaria6 - more than a few blanket hornpipes going on over there!)

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	9. Chapter 9

'I can heal her,' a female voice pleaded.

'You probably can't even touch her without killing her!' Q knelt down and blocked Kathryn from the stranger's view. He clicked his fingers and just like that, the pain slipped away. 'Come back to me, Kathy. Aha... there you are,' he clucked proudly as the singed and bloodied woman opened her eyes to look at him properly.

'The Aeroshuttle! Where's Chakotay?!' Captain Janeway struggled to break free from the cradle of Q's arms, but he would not release her.

'The shuttle's gone, my dear,' he shook his head sadly, and for once there was no mischief in the god's expression. No hidden jest. 'What were you thinking, silly girl? Do you realise how lucky you were to make it through that force field alive?' Q sounded like a worried mother hen. 'Those polaric ion particles you bashed through like a battering ram could have started a subspace chain reaction and obliterated the whole planet! And the subspace fractures you left behind you? Think of the mess I have to clean up now. I assume my son put you up to this? Tell me how he convinced you and I will gladly punish him.'

Kathryn only heard his first three words. The shuttle was gone. So Chakotay was gone too.

She stopped fighting. The pain that flooded her now felt different to before. Not sharp and throbbing as if radiating from the source of a gash or a broken bone, but heavy, raw and suffocating - like an immense pressure pushing in on her and fighting to get out at the same time.

'How could you?' she looked almost feral - a smear of blood along one cheekbone, hair and uniform in ruins, eyes desperate and accusing. 'You saved me but not him?'

'I didn't save you at all,' Q corrected gently, scooping the woman up onto her feet and stepping back to give her space. 'She did.'

For the first time since opening her eyes, Captain Janeway became aware of her surroundings. They were in a contained, indoor space that looked like the brig of a starship. In its holding cell - safe behind a containment field - was an energy-based lifeform she'd never seen before.

'Captain?' there was something familiar in the low, soft voice that called to her, and Kathryn's eyes grew wider as she recognised the creature - it was Kes.

The being had no firm outline, but a certain likeness to the sweet Ocampan came and went within the energy pattern, which glowed and pulsed like pale, purple flame. 'I'm so sorry for what I've done,' it entreated. 'Please let me make amends. Everything is my fault.'

'She's right about that,' the Q griped, but Kathryn held up her hand to silence him.

'Kes?' she approached the holding cell and stared at the creature, cautious but unafraid. 'Why are you sorry? What is your fault?'

'It was me,' the form recoiled, as if turning its head in shame. 'You were free of the planet's force field but I struck your shuttle when I was drawn to the plasma stream. I sensed you the moment after it happened - felt the heat of the fire before it ignited - but I only had time to save one of you. I never meant for Chakotay to die. The Q should have destroyed me when he had the chance.' The Kes-being tried to reach through the cell's containment field, perhaps to comfort her former captain, but a pulse of electrostatic energy repelled her and she coiled up with a hiss of of pain before moving to hide in the far corner of the cell.

Kathryn paced a few, unsteady steps away from the holding cell and clutched at the bulkhead to support herself as a wave of grief washed over her. It didn't matter if it was an accident. Chakotay was dead and no amount of sorries would bring him back. She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. She'd made it through Eden's particle field safely, she'd found Q, but it felt like it was all for nothing if Chakotay wasn't there with her too. Kathryn had imagined the possibility of both of them dying together, but not him dying while she survived. It was too cruel... And there was only one person who could have known it was going to happen.

'Q!' she turned on him, face stricken. 'We were just trying to get home. We'd just won a ten year advantage thanks to Kes, but then you had to come along and wreck everything again. My first officer should be alive right now! Chakotay should be alive! You'd better have one hell of a good reason for dragging us into this situation or, so help me god, I'm going to...' What was she going to do? He was omnipotent. She was merely a mortal, and broken one at that.

'I'll tell you everything,' Q held up his hands in surrender, surprised by how much the woman's suffering was affecting him. He normally took such pleasure in teasing her, testing her, but all he felt now was a strange, prickling something that a lesser being might identify as guilt.

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'It all started a few days ago,' Q conjured himself a bench-seat to match the one in Kes' holding cell and sat down upon it, submissive and contrite. 'I was summoned by the High Judge of the Q Council and tasked with the secret mission of eradicating a new energy-based lifeform that had been detected in the Delta Quadrant.'

'Kes?' Janeway frowned, wiping a hand over her face in a weary, agitated gesture. 'Why?'

'It was claimed that the new being was once a simple carbon-based lifeform belonging to the Ocampa species - an aberration of forced evolution due to the interference of a species from another galaxy that shouldn't have even been in this sector for another five thousand years. The Caretakers, I believe you call them?'

Kathryn's eyes flashed darkly. 'Suspiria.'

Q nodded. 'Her Honorable Qness ordered me to destroy the new lifeform and its guardian before their presence caused any further damage to the current timeline. The Continuum takes little pleasure in destroying intelligent life, but Caretakers have been known to encourage their protégés on destructive paths. It was anticipated that Suspiria would harness the power of this new entity and use it as a weapon to destabilise the Delta Quadrant. We observed many futures and saw that your little friend had the potential to evolve beyond her current form and become a threat to certain Q - primarily, my son.'

'I don't believe it,' Kathryn shook her head and moved back to look at the pathetic creature huddled in the corner of the holding cell. 'Kes was starting to uncover her unique abilities during the year or so before she left Voyager. She was capable of destructive power even then, and what just happened with our shuttle...,' she stiffened, hit by a fresh wave of bitterness at the thought of Chakotay and all they had lost. '...Kes may be a threat to mortals and other matter that exists on the physical plane, but I don't believe for one second that she acts from an intention to harm others, and I certainly don't believe she could harm the Q.'

'Neither do I,' Q appeared beside her at the holding cell's doorway, hands laced behind his back as he studied the cowering column of light in the corner.

'After I'd detained Junior on Eden for his protection and brought you from Voyager to keep him company, I thought it would only take me a few moments to... deal with the threat. I expected the lifeform to put up a fight, which would give me the justification to end her existence, but she didn't. She fled - with impressive speed, I might add - to the subspace realm of Exotia, where she sought asylum with her Caretaker. Susperia had no qualms about fighting to protect her ward, and I had no qualms about destroying Susperia,' he produced a fist-sized, crystalline object - all that was left of that alien species in the entire Milky Way.

'Suspiria bequeathed her final burst of energy to her protégé, and Kes used it - not to fight me - but to run. For the last few days, the two of us have been playing a game of cat and mouse across the galaxy and throughout countless layers of subspace - until she made the unfortunate error of colliding with your Aeroshuttle, giving me the distraction I needed to subdue her,' he indicated the brig.

Kathryn stared at the being inside the cell, her mind racing. 'But how on earth did she manage to evade you for so long?'

'A question I've had some time to consider,' Q's eyes usually sparkled with humour and intelligence, but a new intensity was growing in his expression. 'I believe there is something very special about our friend Kes, here - something Judge Q did not see fit to tell me. She's a creature of energy, capable of manipulating physical matter and travelling through space and subspace at will. I might not have recognised it at all if I hadn't spent the last six months with Junior, but it's there - if you look beyond the crudeness of her current form, the uncontrolled exterior, the fear and confusion at her massive power. She's just a baby. But she's a baby-'

'...Q! She's a baby Q!' the human's hand flew to her mouth. 'But how?' Kathryn was still in shock at losing Chakotay and this news was more than her brain could handle. 'You told me once that the Q have always existed. Junior was supposed to have been the first Q ever born.'

'It seems he was,' Q shrugged. 'Just as Kes was the first Q to evolve - or perhaps she is just the first to evolve in a very long time. Think of it, Kathryn - everything I understood of the Q Continuum and our place in the universe is now under question,' his eyes were shining with the thrill of considering something new - a fresh idea in a mind weary of the endless same. 'Whatever secret the Judge is hiding, it's big enough to kill for - to kill a baby Q.'

Kathryn couldn't fight for Chakotay anymore. She didn't even feel like fighting for herself. But Captain Janeway was a fighter at heart - strong, compassionate, fearless in her pursuit of justice and the truth - and there was still one person who needed her to fight for them now.

'You can't kill her,' Captain Janeway denied him flatly, stepping between the Q and his prize. 'I won't let you. Kes is only a newborn - lacking experience and control. She needs a parent, not an executioner.'

'Of course I'm not going to kill her,' Q pulled a scornful expression. 'I'd no sooner kill Kes as I would you or my own son. This beautiful creature may be the key to unlocking the truth behind the whole Continuum - our past and our future... And besides,' his face took on an impertinent gleam. 'I can't wait to see the look on Old Judgie's sour puss when she realises I haven't gone through with her orders.'

'Well, here I am, Q,' a woman's voice cut across the room, aged and acid. 'Have a good, long look.'

'Your Honour,' Q bowed deeply to greet the red-robed woman that had just appeared in the brig - enthroned and flanked by two other council judges, her blue-stained lips set in a disapproving line. 'What a pleasant surprise to see you.'

The baby Q cowered lower in her corner but Kathryn stood her ground. The Starfleet captain might have been blood-stained from her shuttle-crash and suffering from grief and shock. She possessed no weapons to guard the cell door, or special powers to stand against a Q attack if it came to that, but she vowed to stand and defend Kes nonetheless - until her very last breath.

Q Junior watched the Aeroshuttle disappear from sight, willing it to cross through the barrier of explosive particles unharmed. Everything was going to plan, and then the sky lit with fire. He didn't have to think twice. Aunt Kathy was right. Life was more precious because of its transience. He clicked his fingers and ascended.

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Author's Note:

Ack... Chakotay's down for the count, or is he?! Kes is a baby Q (you should have seen my face when that lightbulb went off in my head!) but what does that mean for the rest of the Continuum? Kathryn has had everything taken from her but she's still badass enough to protect Kes from a murderous Judge Q... Drama! 

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	10. Chapter 10

Junior punched through the Aeroshuttle-shaped hole in the planet's force field and stopped at the uppermost limit of the stratosphere. The darkness of space was above him, the blue-green globe of Eden below, and all around him an angry orange firestorm of floating debris.

A penetrating sweep of the wreckage led his eye to a battered shuttle casing - the port wing completely gone and shields failing. His intention was so clear he didn't need to click his fingers, and a nanosecond later the Q was kneeling on the surface of the planet's larger moon, shielding his godfather's inert body as a series of distant polaric explosions sent a massive shockwave racing towards them.

Chakotay had no knowledge of the new impending danger. He remained unconscious - face streaked with ash and blood, breathing undetectable.

'Sorry, Uncle Chucky,' Junior shook gently at the charred black fabric that used to be the shoulder of Chakotay's uniform. 'Dad needs me now. This is going to hurt like hell, but it's time to wake up.'

It was as though some buried part of Chakotay's consciousness heard the boy's instruction. In the next moment he gasped awake and turned onto his side, coughing violently.

'Kathryn?' It was his first word, his only thought.

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'I see you have captured the creature,' the High Judge looked down at Q with beady, probing eyes, 'and yet you have not destroyed it. Explain yourself.'

Q's tongue danced with various retorts, but Captain Janeway called out sharply from her post at the holding cell doorway - face set hard to mask the personal anguish that swirled just beneath the surface.

'This creature you refer to is called Kes,' Kathryn spoke up for the one who couldn't speak for herself. 'She is a member of my crew on the Federation starship Voyager, and I will not allow you or anyone else to take her life without just cause.'

'A human,' the High Judge registered her disdain, sparing only the briefest glance at Kathryn's bloodied, vaguely shell-shocked appearance. 'I don't know what Q sees in your ignorant, feeble species, but I am aware of your meddlesome nature and I strongly advise you to desist.'

The dour-looking male judge on the right squinted at the Starfleet captain. 'You are a mortal. You have no voice on this Council or influence upon its decisions.'

'You're absolutely right, good judges,' Q interjected smoothly, before Kathryn could launch her next argument and get them both into deeper trouble. 'Captain Janeway is, indeed, an ignorant, meddling human being, however I believe she makes a good point. Clarify for me, if you would... on what grounds are you ordering the death of the individual known as Kes?'

The High Judge narrowed her eyes. 'You already know the grounds. The creature is an aberration. It was never meant to be. It's powers pose a threat to mortals and matter, space and subspace, and it is our duty as Q to protect the universe from the chaos it will inevitably wreak.'

Q matched her keen expression. 'All valid considerations... and yet I wonder if the real reason behind your ruling to destroy the creature is the fact that she is rapidly evolving into a Q?'

'Evolving into a Q?!' the wizened judge on the left scoffed. 'And I thought I'd heard it all.'

'Inconceivable!' his dour colleague spluttered. 'A preposterous, unsubstantiated assertion...'

Q saw a subtle change in the High Judge's expression and his eyes widened in understanding. 'You didn't tell them? Your two nearest and dearest members of the Q Council? Well, this is interesting.'

He watched as a shift occurred on the faces of the other judges - from absolute certainty to niggling doubt.

'If it isn't too bold a question,' Q trod the fine line between sweetness and sarcasm, 'what in the Q is going on here?'

A sudden, tense debate erupted between the three robed officials and it wasn't long before the High Q conceded it was in her best interests to divulge the truth.

'What I am about to tell you must not leave this room,' she cautioned severely. 'Understood?' Satisfied they were all in agreement, the High Judge sat taller on her throne - an imposing column of red, black and gold. 'Does any Q present remember the creation of the universe?' she demanded, ignoring the only human in the room and the cowering creature that she guarded.

Kathryn's thoughts immediately turned to Voyager's encounter with Quinn - when the troubled Q hijacked her ship and crew and flung them back to the dawn of existence - but it was clear she was not invited to speak.

'I may have been there once or twice - to avoid the reach of this Council, in fact,' Q sallied.

'I am not asking whether you've popped by for a casual visit,' the judge blinked at him sourly. 'Do any of you remember the exact moment of the inception of the universe? Which member of the Continuum triggered the initial singularity that led to the expansion of space? Which of us created the forces and basic elements that were used to form stars and planets, and the countless species that populate them?'

The only answer was silence.

'There is a reason we don't remember the earliest chapter in universal history,' she informed them grimly, observing their uneasy expressions. 'None of us were there. We merely possess the ability to return and revise events after the fact.'

'What is your meaning, High Q?' the face of the wizened judge seemed to pale against his black wimple and underrobes. 'Explain the basis of your claims.'

The High Judge lifted her nose and made her declaration to the room. 'I am Q. The first of the new Q. But before me there was Q - the creator of the universe. For the first billion years of the existence of our universe, she gave life and order to all things, and when she tired of her task she created Q children in her own image to care for her creation. She made us to experience life in all its forms - evolving from the mortal bodies of the ancient Ocampan ancestors, to simple energy beings, to extra-dimensional, immortal, omnipotent Q.'

'But... How...?' the Q in the Starfleet uniform opened and closed his mouth several times before giving up and sitting heavily on the bench. The other judges were displaying similar signs of shock.

There was one person in the room, however, who had the presence of mind to form a clear response. 'If evolution is a natural process for the Q,' Captain Janeway frowned, hands tensing at her sides, 'then Kes is not an aberration at all. So why do you seek to destroy her?'

The High Judge fixed the human with a withering gaze. 'After the Continuum was first established, Q realised she must limit the size of the Q population to ensure unity of law, government and principle throughout our society. As we have learned from recent experience,' her eyes slid across to the stunned Q on the bench-seat, 'power spread too widely promotes independent thought, opposing factions and an eventual descent into chaos. In her wisdom, Q limited the lifespan of our Ocampan cousins to prevent them from reaching the age of maturity required to trigger the evolution process. There were never meant to be more Q.'

'So that's why you've been giving me such a hard time about Junior,' Q muttered.

'In part,' the judge lifted a critical brow. 'There is also the fact of you having a twelve billion year track-record of selfish and irresponsible behaviour - hardly the qualities the Continuum would wish to engender in a new generation of Q. Frankly, I don't know why we continue giving you chances to redeem yourself when the only thanks we get for our mercy is further insubordination. If it were up to me, you'd already be imprisoned on that comet your suicidal associate Quinn occupied for the last few centuries.'

'You're wrong about him, you know,' Kathryn lifted her blood-streaked jaw in defiance of the charge, her sense of justice stronger than her desire for self-preservation.

The High Q turned on her accuser with an ugly smile. 'The human believes I am wrong. How quaint. Go on then - do enlighten us.'

Captain Janeway looked across the room to her familiar, fickle, frustrating Q, and despite all the trouble and heartache he'd brought her, she found the will to fight for him too. 'From everything I have witnessed, Your Honours, Q is not a selfish or irresponsible father at all,' she defended him. 'Even before the birth of his son Junior, Q had the vision that he wanted his child to be a unifying force among the Continuum, and he went to great pains to select a suitable mate who would help him achieve this goal. Soon after the child was born, Q acknowledged his own shortcomings as a father...'

Q pouted, not interpreting that as a compliment.

'...and actively sought to improve his parenting skills by engaging me as Junior's godmother. He's brought your civil war to a ceasefire, complied with all the conditions imposed on him by this Council following Junior's unfortunate incident with the Borg, and ensured a safe environment and proper supervision for his son while he pursued the threat that you sent him out to destroy. If that's not good parenting, then I don't know what is.'

The praise went straight to Q's head and he beamed like a child who'd just won first prize in a fair.

'I'll second that opinion, your Honour.'

Everybody's eyes shifted in unison, locking onto the child who had just appeared in the room. Junior moved across to be at his father's side as Q stood up to greet the boy.

'I know I haven't always been the easiest child to handle,' Junior faced the panel of judges boldly, 'but Q has never given up on me. He's been patient through my failures and weathered my occasionally puerile, cantankerous moods. He's invested time to teach me the skills I need to be a Q... like just recently, when he taught me how make a star and blow it up...'

'Didn't need to mention that,' Q coughed behind his hand.

'And he knows how to provide boundaries and discipline too. Just the other day he restricted my powers so I could spend time with my human godparents and not be tempted to harm them...'

Q shook his head. 'Could have kept that to yourself as well,' he muttered.

'Most importantly,' the boy pressed on, 'he's taught me that my actions can make a difference, and watching his example has given me the confidence to do what I believe is right, regardless of rule or reason.' Junior reached up to lay a hand on his father's shoulder, face uncharacteristically earnest. 'When I looked up from Eden and saw the sky light with that first ion explosion, my natural survival instinct told me to get the hell out of there, but my heart led me straight to Uncle Chucky. I got him out safely, Dad. Sent him back to Voyager. I figured you would have done the same – anything to keep Aunt Kathy happy,' he turned and smiled softly to his godmother.

Kathryn had been listening, tight-lipped and motionless, from her guardpost between Kes and the judges, but her skin paled at Junior's news and she lurched the few steps towards the Q child, fingers digging into his arm.

'Chakotay's alive?' Kathryn demanded hoarsely, not daring to hope it could be true. Q said the shuttle was gone. She'd presumed that meant Chakotay was dead - but if Junior had saved him?...

'He's alive,' Junior nodded simply. 'Promise.'

Something snapped inside Kathryn's chest and she sucked in a desperate, laboured breath, pressing her hand over her mouth to muffle the raw cry of relief that fell from her throat. She had to go to him! She had to see him with her own eyes and know he was safe! Her weight swayed, but Junior was there to support her, and Q's face was the picture of pride and affection as he scruffled his son's hair.

The High Judge remained impassive. 'Be that as it may,' her tone was caustic, 'let us return to the issue at hand. There is a pre-Q lifeform in that holding cell. It is powerful, completely lacking in self-control and it was never meant to exist. Moreover, Q is no longer with us, and she is the only being who has ever overseen the transition of an Ocampan mortal from its energy state to the state of Q. I move that we destroy the creature immediately, before its mere existence sends the Q Continuum and the wider universe into chaos.'

Kes gave a pitiful shriek and tried to flatten herself against the wall, the panicked sound reminding Kathryn of her duty. The captain retreated back to the cell doorway and balled her hands - ready to fight for Kes with words or fists if need be - but Q chose that moment to step forward and address the council.

'As my dear Kathy suggested to me earlier, we don't need to kill the creature - we need to care for her, and as the only person in this room with direct parenting experience, I'd like to volunteer myself for the job... I'm not saying I'd be the perfect teacher, but as the human expression goes, it takes a village to raise a child. We could enlist a small group of Q mentors to assist me in guiding Kes through the final stages of her transition - to teach her the ways of the Continuum and give us the best chance of moulding her into a functional member of our society.'

'Out of the question,' the High Q snapped. 'The Continuum are only just recovering from the last civil war you started. We cannot risk further unrest by shaking the Q's core beliefs about the origins of our species... And more immediately, who would look after your own offspring while you cared for the other child? His mother is barely in the picture, or so I've heard, and don't even try suggesting this human godmother of yours as a substitute babysitter. A mere mortal is neither equipped nor permitted to provide long-term guardianship over a Q.'

Q had argued with this Council countless times before, and he knew defeat when he saw it. He threw a look of apology to Kathryn and the captain wavered - torn between her desire to fight for Kes and her urgency to return to Voyager to reunite with Chakotay.

'I'd like to make a bargain,' Junior stepped forward, ignoring the warning look from his father.

'The Council of Judges does not bargain,' the dour Q admonished him.

'An offer, then,' the child corrected himself. 'What if I wasn't a Q?'

'Junior,' his father cautioned.

The boy plowed on regardless. 'If I relinquished my powers and became mortal, then Q would be released from the custody arrangements he entered into with you regarding my training and supervision. That would leave him free to take care of the baby Q... Kes... until the Council has had time to observe her behaviour and decide if she is truly a threat to the Continuum. We could make it a sort of exchange program - for a year, perhaps - me as a human with Aunt Kathy on Voyager, and Kes learning from Dad here in the Continuum.'

The wizened judge leaned forward on his throne and studied the boy keenly. 'A mortal - by choice? Confining yourself to a frail, human body and the tedium of linear time? Whatever would compel you to offer such a thing?'

Junior sent a small smile to his godmother. 'Because the transience of mortality can make you realise how precious life is... and, as Uncle Chucky once told me, sometimes it's good to go a little slower - to appreciate what you have in life, and build a sense of anticipation for what might come next.'

Kathryn blinked furiously and glanced away. She'd never heard Chakotay speak those words aloud, but it was like he was saying them to her now - voice gentle, eyes wise and encouraging. She did appreciate him - more than she'd ever allowed herself to admit it before. And she was anticipating whatever life held for them next - Q or Borg, Delta Quadrant or Alpha, wandering a lifetime among the stars with their crew aboard Voyager or returning to the familiar rhythms of Starfleet and Earth - she was willing to face it all, so long as they faced it together.

The old judge sat back with a look of mild disbelief. 'Out of the mouths of babes. Perhaps his father is not doing such a terrible job after all. I move that we give them a chance; one year's mortal banishment for boy, in exchange for one year's training for the young Q called Kes.'

'I support the motion,' the dour judge added his vote. 'The existence of this evolving-Q raises compelling questions the Continuum must consider. If we accept that there was a first Q, why did she leave and where is she now? Did she come from a realm beyond this universe that the Q cannot comprehend? Is our universe merely a single system within a greater multiverse, with each universe presided over by a Great Q? Are there other Q like her, and could we all, one day, evolve beyond our current existence to join their enlightened ranks? It is my wish - as it should be yours, High Q - to explore these questions, and those we have not yet thought to ask.'

The High Judge's shoulders seemed to sag under the weight of her chain of office. 'It appears I am outvoted,' she scowled. 'Q, the creature is yours. See to her training... or I'll see to you,' she finished darkly.

The proud new father approached the holding cell eagerly to meet his adopted baby daughter. 'Now what shall we call you, little one?' he beckoned her and she half-crept, half-wafted to the doorway. 'No longer Kes, yet not quite a Q... Q and Kes combined. I have it!' his eyes lit with satisfaction. 'You shall henceforth be known as Qes!'

'But she's already called Kes,' Captain Janeway shot him a tired look. She'd made it through the past few hours on adrenaline alone, and now they'd reached a positive outcome it felt like someone had given her a hypospray of high-concentration sedatives. She didn't want to play any more of Q's games. She just wanted to go home.

'It's all in the spelling, my dear,' Q turned and patted her shoulder indulgently. 'Junior?' he called for his son and held the boy at arm's length, gazing at him proudly. 'You really came through for us in the end there, boy-o. A little reward for your human graduation...'

He snapped his fingers and Junior looked down then up again in great excitement. The boy was gone, and in his place was a young man of seventeen - tall like his father, with a strong jaw, an intelligent brow, and a head of wavy, brown hair thick enough to make Jean Luc weep with envy.

'A year is going to feel like a long time without your powers, Junior,' Q quirked a roguish eyebrow. 'At least this way you might find some buxom young ensign to help you pass the dreary hours... Now, one last favour for your old man. Go look after your Aunt Kathy. She's had a rough day and it's time we got her back to her ship and crew. I expect there's a certain first officer who's very anxious to see her.'

Kathryn's heart clenched at the thought of seeing Chakotay again, her beautiful starship, the dear faces of all her crew. 'Do it, Q,' she ordered quietly, mind weary and body trembling in anticipation. 'Now.'

'A moment!' the High Q warned sharply. 'Reset the timeline first. I don't want that human spreading rumours about what she's witnessed until we know what impact this Qes will have on the Continuum and the greater universe.'

'No!' Kathryn was suddenly, rigidly awake. 'Don't you dare take it away from me Q,' she begged, clutching at his arm like a lifeline. 'I've already lost Chakotay once today. I can't forget what we've been through together, what we've become... And the crew,' her eyes widened, aghast she didn't think of them first. 'You said you sent them back to Earth. They're already home with their loved ones. You can't undo that. Please!'

'Sorry, m'dear. Boss' orders,' Q's hand brushed the top of her arm fondly. 'The memories have to go...'

It should have been simple enough - just a click of the fingers - but the Q hesitated. He'd long admired Kathryn Janeway for her strength, her tenacity, her pig-headedness and her passion, but when he saw her now in this moment of utter weakness and need, he felt something new. For the first time in all his millennia of existence, Q felt the compelling tug of empathy for another living being - independent of his personal desires and machinations.

'...But I'll see what I can do for your crew,' he conceded, giving her shoulder a squeeze. 'Take care, Kathy - of Junior and yourself.'

He clicked.

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Author's Note:

Cliffhanger! So... There's an ancient Q, possibly presiding over a greater multiverse (trippy!). Chakotay appears to be alive (yay!), but how will the shift to the timeline affect Kathryn & the crew (gah!)?

Qes. I was proud of that :) I would also like to moot a new form of poetry called High-Q - the same 5-7-5 syllable structure as haiku, but thematically based on existentialist philosophy and the woes of dealing with mortals.

Dour Judge: Inconceivable! (Me: I do not think that means what you think that means.) Author receives 10 bonus points for double-nerding with a Princess Bride reference!

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	11. Chapter 11

Commander, you are required on the bridge immediately. Please respond.

Chakotay suppressed his coughing long enough to hear the sound of Tuvok's voice coming from his combadge, words clipped and a fraction faster than usual.

'Computer, lights,' he demanded raggedly, brain struggling to catch up with what had just happened.

He was alone in his quarters lying face-down on the floor, but only a second ago he'd been on the Aeroshuttle with Kathryn. (Kathryn! he bit back a wave of panic as he struggled to his feet. Where was she?!) They'd taken heavy damage, lost a wing nacelle. Then they broke free of Eden's force field and something smashed into them. He remembered a bright light. Smoke. The sickening cry as his captain hurtled across the cockpit and landed down hard. Throbbing at his temple. A searing pain across his shoulders and back.

The man clutched his head in alarm but there was no wound there. He felt for charred flesh at his shoulder but his skin was intact beneath the tattered sleeve of his uniform. Why wasn't he dead? The only possible answer was Q. Chakotay supposed he should be grateful, but there was no way he could relax until he'd confirmed that Kathryn was safe... and Tuvok's comm message made it sound like they weren't out of danger yet.

'Acknowledged,' he slapped at his combadge and stumbled out into the corridor, heart rate accelerating when he saw the yellow alert flashing on the computer interface by his cabin door. 'Computer, locate Captain Janeway,' he ordered, breaking into a jog as he set course for the turbolift.

Captain Janeway is not currently on board.

'Run the sweep again!' Chakotay demanded.

Unable to identify Captain Janeway's biosignature. The captain is not aboard Voyager.

'Come on!' the man bashed his fist against the turbolift door. It was on its way up from Deck 11. Too slow. He had to get to the bridge.

The doors finally opened and he entered swiftly to discover Ensign Vorik was already inside - expression predictably pensive, eyes unusually bright.

'Do you require an escort to sickbay, sir?' the Vulcan made a calculated observation of his commander's harrowed expression and torn, filthy uniform as they ascended to the bridge. 'You seem... agitated. Did you sustain any serious injuries going through the rift?'

'What rift?' Chakotay looked at him blankly, his gut crawling with a sense of rising dread.

The turbolift doors hissed open again and he didn't wait around for an answer.

The lights on the bridge were flickering. An ensign in a red shirt was sitting on the ground with blood running from a gash at the back of her head. A few feet away another officer was nursing his broken wrist, while a temporary field medic hurried across the room to perform triage. Harry Kim was putting out an electrical fire that had partially gutted the main ops control panel, simultaneously fielding questions that B'Elanna was barking at him from her post in engineering. Tom Paris was sitting forward in his seat at the helm, staring out the main viewscreen with his mouth slightly open, and Lieutenant Tuvok rose from the captain's chair - sensing Commander Chakotay's presence as soon as he stepped onto the bridge.

'I heard something about a rift,' Chakotay started talking the moment he was through the door. 'What's going on, Tuvok? Where's the captain?'

Tuvok stood calmly - a beacon of peace in the sea of chaos around them. 'We have just emerged from several minutes of extreme turbulence, commander. Elevated tachyon emissions suggest a temporal rift. If sensors are to believed, Voyager is no longer in the Delta Quadrant.'

Chakotay felt light-headed. 'Our current position?'

'We are traveling a course along the Alpha-Beta axis, approximately five thousand light years from Federation space,' the lieutenant informed him promptly. 'The ship has sustained significant structural damage, with hull breaches on decks seven, nine and twelve. No fatalities have been reported at this stage. I am aware of eighteen casualties requiring medical attention, however that number is likely to rise. The doctor is requesting officers with basic medical training to report to sickbay and assist him. Would you like me to send Lieutenant Paris?'

The first officer shook his head dismissively. 'There could be more temporal anomalies. We need him at the helm... And Captain Janeway?' he pushed.

The Vulcan's brows angled more steeply with concern. 'I cannot locate her, commander. I sent a security detail to the captain's quarters when she did not respond to calls. My team found no sign of her, and the computer has failed to identify her biosignature anywhere on the ship. Your bio-pattern disappeared for a short period also. I inferred that the two of you were together. Do you have any information that might aid our search?'

'Q,' Chakotay muttered bitterly, pacing away a few steps then stopping stock-still. 'Tuvok, you said the captain couldn't be located anywhere on the ship. Did you scan the shuttles?'

A small movement of Tuvok's head said he hadn't. 'The shuttle-bays are included in the computer's standard search parameters,' he could not see the logic in the commander's question. 'If Captain Janeway was aboard one of the shuttles her bio-sign would have registered on the scan.'

'Not necessarily,' the commander hoped to god he was right. 'Harry! Is the locking bay for the Aeroshuttle in the saucer section included as part of the basic sensor sweep?'

Harry's console fire had been extinguished but he still looked panicked. 'The Aeroshuttle is non-operational - it was never linked to our main systems,' the ensign jabbed at his control panel, cursing under his breath. The electrical fire had blown at least half the circuitry. There were whole systems he wouldn't be able to access until B'Elanna sent a repair crew up to fix things. 'You'd have to do an isolated...'

'Computer, locate the Aeroshuttle locking bay on Deck 9 and scan for life signs!'

Two human life signs detec-...

Chakotay was already running for the turbolift door.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kathryn opened her eyes. The world bounced and swam. Someone was carrying her, moving quickly. There was something reassuring about the distinctly male scent. Chakotay. She peered up at him. He'd never looked so terrified. She saw stars behind him. Why was there a hole in her ship? She would have to ask him about that, if she could just keep her eyes open.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'What's wrong with her, doctor?'

Kathryn must have passed out on the way to sickbay. She prised her eyelids open a crack and saw Chakotay hovering over her with a worried expression.

'Calm down, commander,' the reproving voice was obviously the EMH. 'The captain appears to be in a state of mild neuroleptic shock and my scans are showing polaric radiation levels five times higher than normal. I am applying a hypospray of netrazine for the radiation poisoning, synaptizine for the shock, and an analgesic to counteract the pain.'

Was she in pain? She supposed she might be, but she mostly felt numb. Somebody was squeezing her hand. Chakotay again. She knew he cared for her wellbeing - as she would for his if he were injured - but why was he still here? Shouldn't he be on the bridge? There was a hole in her starship!

'Time to move along, commander,' the doctor prompted firmly. 'I've got twenty-six casualties to attend to, and three green field medics who can barely tell the difference between a medical tricorder and a tongue depressor. Visiting hours are officially over.'

The fingers around her hand tightened.

'Please come back to me, Kathryn. I miss you,' Chakotay's lips tickled her ear as he spoke.

How on earth did he miss her? Presumably they were just on the bridge together for their last shift before dinner, or had she been in and out of consciousness for a while?... Wait. What?! Did her first officer just kiss her on the cheek - in full view of every patient in sickbay?! Even if she'd been at death's door that was inappropriate and Chakotay knew it!

He left. Her world returned to background noise. Doctor nagging. Field medic apologising. A patient's groan. Chakotay's intimate behaviour might have been out of line, but Kathryn missed the warmth of his hand over hers. The comforting something about his presence. The drugs were starting to kick in now. She slept.

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The next time Kathryn awoke, her mind felt clearer. She was still in sickbay. The doctor was working at his computer behind the glass partition that marked his office space, and the only other person in sight was Chakotay. He was sitting guard by the biobed with one hand dug into the bridge of his nose, the other clutching a PADD that looked like it was about to slip onto the floor.

'Still here, commander? Don't you have work to do?' Kathryn joked to catch his attention, her voice a little croaky.

'Captain,' he discarded the PADD immediately and pulled his chair closer to the lowered bed, taking her hand in his. His face was haggard from lack of sleep - just as hers was probably puffy from sleeping too long.

'How long have I been out?' the patient asked, glancing at their linked hands. She didn't mind Chakotay showing affection towards her when they had some privacy. They might have had their differences lately - and serious ones at that - but he'd promised her she wasn't alone, and here he was keeping that promise. She was grateful to still have his friendship.

'Nearly three days,' a look of tenderness flooded the man's features. 'You're getting to make a habit of this, captain.'

Captain Janeway frowned. 'Everything's still a little hazy. Was Voyager attacked? I thought I saw some damage to the ship when you carried me from the shuttle,' she shifted tentatively to check for pain then allowed her first officer to help her sit up against the pillows. 'What happened, Chakotay?'

'Q happened, of course.'

She looked alarmed but he shook his head to assure her there was no present danger.

'We found Q Junior in the shuttle beside you,' Chakotay explained quickly. 'He's a young man now, and human - at least for the present. He said he wanted to take a gap-year from the Continuum, and you agreed to let him try his hand at life as a Starfleet crewman in exchange for a generous thank you gift from Q. I don't know how you managed it, Kathryn,' his hand found hers again, squeezing gently, 'but the deal you struck with Q was better than anything we could have hoped for.'

'What did Q do?' she asked dubiously, searching his face for clues.

'He gave us a lift,' Chakotay smiled at her with his eyes, leaning in to share the secret he'd been waiting for days to tell her. 'Kathryn... we're not in the Delta Quadrant anymore. We're only five years from the edge of Federation Space.'

Captain Janeway baulked, a small noise of surprise sounding in the back of her throat. By all logic, Voyager's journey home should have taken them seventy-five years, but now they might make it back within the next ten? The news was utterly overwhelming. Kathryn's chin trembled as she thought back over the trials they'd faced together in the past three years, and suddenly Chakotay was sitting on edge of the biobed with his arms folding her close.

'But...,' she pulled back from the embrace, not quite believing it could be true. Only five years to Federation Space? That was barely longer than a standard deep space mission.

The man nodded, cheeks dimpling in a soft smile, eyes gazing into hers. 'Happy, captain?' he asked gently. A few days ago they didn't even think they'd make it off Eden. Now they were most of the way home.

A bubble of bewildered, joyous laughter escaped from Captain Janeway's mouth, and Chakotay did the first thing that came to his mind. He looked down at the beautiful, upward curve of her lips and pressed his own against them. Kathryn's body responded before her brain did, and instead of pushing him away she clutched at his neck - breathing in the warm, familiar scent of him and wondering how it felt so natural to be sharing this moment of intimacy with her first officer and dearest friend. He released her lips slowly, eyes half-closed, but didn't stray far from her mouth.

'I love you, Kathryn,' Chakotay whispered, angling his head to nuzzle his nose against hers. 'I'm so glad we made it back.' From Eden to Voyager. From the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha.

'Commander!' the words brought Captain Janeway to her senses and she recoiled from him, her confusion quickly morphing into anger. 'What are you thinking? We may have grown close over the years, but I am your captain and you cannot cross that line.'

He still had her in his arms, his chest rising and falling shallowly. 'I'm sorry,' he stammered, releasing her at once. 'I thought...' She didn't remember! Everything they'd been through together - it was all gone. Was this Q's final, cruel joke? Letting him remember so he knew how much he'd lost? 'You just... looked so happy I guess I got caught up in the moment...,' he trailed off, not knowing what to say to fix things - if they even could be fixed now.

There was a cough from across the room. 'Is everything alright, captain?' the EMH stood in the doorway to his office, arms folded.

Commander Chakotay sprung a foot from the bed and clutched uselessly at the sides of his uniform. Captain Janeway glanced away in embarrassment, covering her face with one hand as if she was afraid the doctor would see Chakotay's kiss emblazoned on her lips. Clearly everything was not alright.

'I was just leaving,' the commander informed the room. 'If anybody needs me I'll be on the bridge,' he looked to his captain, hoping to make another apology, but her head was turned the other way. He clenched his jaw tightly and hurried for the door.

The doctor watched Chakotay leave then paced over to the biobed to check on his patient. 'Anything you'd like to talk about, captain?' he enquired, running a tricorder over her body as an excuse to offer his services as ship's counsellor.

Kathryn's thoughts were racing almost as fast as her heart. What just happened? She'd always prided herself on her ability to maintain a professional distance with her crew. It didn't matter how close a bond she'd developed with Chakotay over the past few years, or how easy and right it felt to be intimate with him. She couldn't afford to slip up like that again, especially now that they were closer to Earth than ever before - closer to Starfleet and all its associated responsibilities and regulations.

'No, doctor,' she remembered he'd asked her a question. 'It was just a misunderstanding. Can I return to the bridge now? It's been nearly three days. Voyager needs her captain.'

'If you feel you are ready to return to your duties, I see no medical reason to detain you any longer,' the EMH agreed. 'I've eradicated all traces of polaric radiation from your system, however, some patients who've suffered a neuroleptic shock can experience recurrences after the fact. Just promise me you'll take things easy for the next couple of days and report back to sickbay if you experience any unusual symptoms.'

'Of course,' she nodded curtly and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

Kathryn was not in peak condition. Her body felt weak from lack of use. Her mind was worrying over Q and what hidden agenda might have inspired him to plant Q Junior aboard Voyager. Her heart had taken a battering thanks to Chakotay - his personal declaration and his news about Voyager's current location. But a Starfleet captain served her ship above her own concerns. Captain Janeway squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. All she needed was a reviving sonic shower, a fresh uniform and a strong coffee, and she would be ready to return to duty.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Captain on the bridge,' Lieutenant Tuvok announced as the turbolift doors opened.

Captain Janeway crossed the room with her head held high, glancing fondly to each of her bridge officers as they paused from their duties to show their support - a nod from Tuvok, an eager smile from Kim, a grin from Paris at the helm. They'd come so far together and she was grateful to every one of them.

Then there was Chakotay. Her first officer stood up to greet her from his command chair at the centre of the bridge. His face was a mask of professionalism, but his eyes dropped quickly from hers - the only hint of what had passed between them earlier.

'The bridge is yours, captain,' he motioned to her seat and took a step back, allowing her space.

She nodded gravely and took her place, fingers splaying out over the edge of the armrests.

'Mr Paris,' she gazed at the viewscreen, seeing the space ahead of them spangled with new stars. 'Take us home.'

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Author's Note:

Big action first half, but a horrible echo of the final shot from 'Resolutions' at the end. This chapter took me the longest to write. It was genuinely awful having to cancel out all the progress J/C have made in their relationship, but I promise I'll make it up to you soon.

A geographical note: I was looking at various maps of the Milky Way when writing this chapter and had no idea how far out Earth is from the centre of the galaxy. Even if Voyager were to reach the crossover point between Delta/Alpha quadrants, they'd still be decades away from Earth. I always imagined the Alpha Quadrant was 'home', and therefore accessible to Starfleet. Not true - that completely blew my mind!

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	12. Chapter 12

Their first few days in the Alpha Quadrant passed quickly.

Captain Janeway had brought Voyagar into orbit around an uninhabited M-class planet so Engineering could complete much-needed repairs to the ship. Their recent subspace adventures had left them with a shattered hull and damaged systems ship-wide, and B'Elanna's team were working around the clock to get Voyager fully operational for the next leg of their journey.

The ship's two newest crew members were already making themselves useful. As the only ones aboard with any knowledge of this area of space, Seven of Nine and Q Junior had been assigned to the astrometrics lab. Under the supervision of senior ops officer Ensign Kim, the ex-Borg and ex-Q were tasked with mapping the local sector's interstellar bodies and cataloguing its resident species to assist in plotting the most efficient course home.

While Harry was proud at being selected for this extra assignment he soon grew to dread his visits to Astrometrics. Seven's beauty was an intriguing distraction, but her social incompetence made their interactions challenging and often disconcerting. Junior was marginally easier to talk to, but the young crewman had the patronising air of an omnipotent being, a fondness for playing pranks on his unsuspecting colleagues, and the libido of a seventeen year old virgin. Being trapped in Astrometrics with the two of them quickly became Harry's personal version of hell.

A scan of the rocky, red planet they were currently orbiting (which they named Ocampa 2 in honour of Kes) revealed several useful mineral deposits that B'Elanna had to have. When enough crewmen could be spared from general repair work, an away team was assembled to collect samples - led by Commander Chakotay and accompanied by Mr Neelix, who hoped to find some Ocampan edibles to stock up the ship's pantry. The heavy magnetic interference in the planet's atmosphere meant they couldn't use the transporter, but after a turbulent shuttle ride that left Neelix gripping tightly to the knee of the security officer beside him, they made it safely to the surface.

Returning to Voyager several hours later, Chakotay and his team emerged from the runabout looking tired but satisfied - carrying bags and cases stuffed full of natural treasures. The commander spent an hour or so making welcome deliveries to Engineering, various science labs and the kitchen then headed up to Deck 1 to give Captain Janeway a verbal report of the day's events.

'Captain?' Chakotay stepped into the ready room but paused near the doorway, unsure if he was welcome to enter.

The situation between them had not improved. Their relationship was still functional on a professional level, but Kathryn refused to acknowledge what had happened in sickbay and was keeping her first officer strictly at arm's length. Thank god there was plenty of work to lose himself in or Chakotay wasn't sure how he would have coped with the coolness that had settled between them.

Kathryn looked up from her desk and indicated for him to take a seat opposite her - adding a physical barrier to the emotional one. 'Welcome back, commander. Was your mission a success?'

He was glad to have good news to tell her.

'We collected the samples that were requested and brought them back to Engineering for testing. There's a lot we can use, but B'Elanna is most excited about the dilithium crystals,' he leaned forward, lacing his hands together loosely on her desk. 'Initial tests indicate the crystals remain stable at even higher reaction rates than those we found in the Delta Quadrant. It would mean a few modifications to the propulsion systems, but B'Elanna thinks she can figure out a way to lift Voyager's sustainable cruising speed to warp factor 6.6. It could be enough to take another few months of the journey,' he tried not to smile too widely, but he was proud of his away team, and proud of his Maquis friend who had more than earned her post as Chief Engineer.

'That's excellent news!' Captain Janeway reached instinctively for his arm then quickly broke contact, remembering she was trying to maintain a professional distance. 'Be sure to note the details in your written report, and I'll review B'Elanna's calculations when she's done.'

Her eyes wandered to the towering stack of PADDs she had to get through before the end of her shift - a cue for Chakotay to leave if he was done - but instead of standing to go he touched the back of her hand to regain her attention.

'Can you spare another moment?' he asked. 'There's something I'd like to run by you.'

She withdrew her hand from his reach under the pretext of picking up her coffee cup. 'Go on.'

Chakotay took the hint and shifted back on his chair so he wasn't encroaching on her personal space, still feeling the imprint of her skin on his fingers. 'What do you actually remember about the day that Q sent Voyager through the temporal rift?'

'Not much,' she frowned, taking a sip of her drink and putting it down again. 'Just waking up on a shuttle and you carrying me to sickbay. And the hole in my ship - I remember that!' she joked darkly. 'The drugs the doctor gave me pretty much wiped out the rest. Why?'

Chakotay's gaze slid to the unfamiliar constellations that lit the ready room window. It would be easier if he could just tell Kathryn everything about their experience on Eden, but he wasn't sure she'd believe him if he did, and there was a strong chance he'd be breaking the Temporal Prime Directive by doing so.

'I can't say I'm a hundred percent clear on all the details myself,' he answered vaguely, 'but I know this much. The shuttle that you and Q Junior were found on wasn't one of Voyager's runabouts. You were on the Aeroshuttle.'

'What?' the captain's frown deepened. 'But the Aeroshuttle isn't flight-ready. The engineers at Mars Space Dock said it still needed to be outfitted with extra parts before it could be made operational. What was I doing on an inoperable shuttle?'

'Well, Q was involved, so there's no telling for sure,' Chakotay mused aloud, 'but my guess is you flew there. If Q somehow modified the shuttle to make it operational, then maybe we can do the same?' he shifted forward on the chair again, his whole face growing more animated as he talked. 'I looked up the Aeroshuttle's original specifications in the computer database, and it's meant to have superior handling capabilities for atmospheric flight. That could be an advantage on away missions like today when our regular shuttles struggled with the high levels of spatial turbulence... And think of the tactical possibilities. If we can get the weapons systems up and running, we've just got ourselves another defensive unit to protect Voyager during a battle scenario. We could even consider deploying the Aeroshuttle as a scouting ship when we approach more densely populated systems in this quadrant - as a way of avoiding unnecessary confrontation with species who might look at Voyager as a threat, or a prize.'

Captain Janeway might not approve of her first officer's recent behaviour but she was always glad to have his ideas at the table. 'Do it,' she nodded. 'Tell B'Elanna she can have anybody she needs to help her get the Aeroshuttle off the ground.'

'Actually, I had an idea about that too,' Chakotay pushed his luck. 'Harry tells me our two new astrometrics officers aren't seeing eye-to-eye. How would you feel about Q Junior taking charge of the Aeroshuttle project? He's been harping on about how we don't let him do anything without Ensign Kim checking over his shoulder. This could be a good chance for us to trust him with a little more independence, and god knows Seven of Nine could do with a break from the constant teasing.'

Kathryn responded with a short, humourless laugh. 'Seven may not be Borg anymore, but it's probably best we don't let Junior to provoke her,' she agreed. '...Janeway to Crewman Q,' she tapped her combadge to summon him. 'Report to my ready room immediately.'

'On my way, Aunt Kathy,' came the response, followed by the beginnings of a hoot of laughter before the transmission cut off.

'What's he up to now?' the captain wiped the tiredness from her face. 'I've had complaints about him from every department. The knowledge of a god and he chooses to behave like a teenage goofball. No wonder Q agreed to the deal we made. He was probably dying for a break.'

'Give the boy a chance, captain,' Chakotay chided gently. 'Junior's not so bad once you get to know him.'

Kathryn frowned. Chakotay might not have intended to sound judgemental, but his words implied that he knew her godson better than she did herself - something that irked her more than she could explain.

'I've been meaning to spend more time with Junior,' the woman defended herself, 'but things have been busy lately,' she indicated the PADDs on her desk. 'I've got the ship's repairs to oversee, endless revisions to make to the duty rosters, an entirely new set of star charts and species to wrap my head around...'

The commander sighed and laid a hand on her sleeve, firmly enough that she could not pull away this time. 'Of all the people on this ship, I know how hard you work, Kathryn, and I admire your dedication and your drive,' he hoped she would hear the sincerity in his voice. 'You are doing the most incredible job - more than Starfleet or any crew could reasonably ask of you, but you don't have to do this alone. I wish you'd let me support you more so you have time to rest and recharge. How many hours has it been since you clocked on? Eighteen? Twenty four? I don't want to tell you how to run your life, but I'm here for you in whatever way you need me. If there's anything I can do to help, please - just ask?'

The captain's jaw tightened. She hated that he was chastising her - and she hated that he was probably right - but they were so close to their goal of getting Voyager home it felt wrong to stop pushing now. They had some momentum going and she wanted to keep it that way. 'Thank you for your concern, commander,' she made a thin attempt at a smile, 'but I've got all the help I need right here.' Kathryn reached for her coffee mug and held it aloft.

She meant it as a joke, but the words stung Chakotay like a slap across the face. He nodded stiffly and stood. He wasn't going to get anywhere with her today, but maybe tomorrow things would be better.

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'What did you say to Uncle Chucky?' Junior loped over to Captain Janeway's desk as soon as the ready room doors opened, seating himself without being invited. 'I saw him outside the turbolift just now and he looked like a kicked puppy.'

'I wish you wouldn't call him Uncle Chucky,' Kathryn deflected, taking a bolstering draught of her coffee. 'He's not your uncle, and his name is Chakotay. Commander Chakotay to you, crewman.'

'Funny... You said we were family once,' the boy took a PADD from the table and perused the screen with interest, looking shocked and hurt when the captain snatched the confidential document back from him.

'What are you going on about, Junior?' the woman felt tetchy. Qs had a tendency of making her feel that way. 'I don't remember saying anything of the sort - to you, or anybody else.'

'Yeah, well maybe that's not the only thing you don't remember, Aunt Kathy.' Junior leaned back in his chair and watched her keenly - the very spit and image of his father.

Kathryn's fingers tightened around the handle of her coffee cup, her mind racing and her body painfully still. When she finally spoke again her words were low and deliberate. 'What really happened in the rift, Junior?' she demanded tersely, hands splaying flat on the desk top to ground herself. 'Why don't I remember making the deal with Q that got Voyager fifty thousand light years closer to home? Why were you and I discovered in a shuttle that wasn't even commissioned yet? Why has my first officer been behaving so oddly around me ever since we arrived in the Alpha Quadrant?

Junior got up and rounded the desk, surprising his godmother by putting an arm around her shoulders and giving her a friendly squeeze. 'Now you're asking right questions, captain,' he murmured into her ear, 'but you're still asking the wrong person. Go talk to Uncle Chucky. He knows more than he's letting on.'

Kathryn's gaze shifted to the ready room door, her mind replaying the image of the tall, soft-spoken man who had exited the room only minutes ago - glancing back at her from the doorway with a strange, bittersweet look on his face. Chakotay knew something. What did he know?

'But not just yet,' Junior waved a hand in front of her eyes to draw her focus back onto himself. 'When you called me on the comm before it sounded urgent. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?'

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Author's Note:

This 'life goes on' chapter was an interesting challenge to write - doing my best to convey a lopsided J/C, with Chakotay trying not to pine over what he'd lost and Kathryn trying to keep her distance.

I am very grateful to Junior for popping up at just the right time to give Kathryn the jolt she'll need to set things back on track again. His small scene wrote itself - I was struggling to tie up some loose ends and Q Jnr pretty much just showed up in my room and did the typing for me :)

Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	13. Chapter 13

Chakotay didn't feel like eating dinner in the mess hall that night. The away mission to Ocampa 2 had been physically tiring, and his conversation with Kathryn afterwards had just about finished him off. He couldn't even summon the focus to meditate, though he knew it was the best way to clear his head and start fresh for the next morning. Instead, he got changed into the most comfortable clothing he owned, ordered a glass of non-alcoholic wine from the replicator and set about cooking a simple dinner for one. Mushroom pasta. Neelix had been pleased to give him some fresh vegetables as a thank you for returning him safely to Voyager after their bumpy shuttle ride earlier. The cream was replicated, but it would do.

The food was cooking away nicely on Chakotay's small bench-top stove when the door chime rang.

'Enter,' he called, wine glass in hand, then panicked a little when he realised it was his captain. 'Sorry, I'm not dressed for company,' he grimaced, looking down at his plain woven shirt, loose tie-cord pants and bare feet. He hadn't bothered with an apron, and the flour from the sauce had left a big white patch near the lower hem of his shirt. If there was an opposite to smart-casual, this was it.

Kathryn didn't seem to care. 'I need to talk to you, Chakotay. Have you got a few minutes?'

She'd called him Chakotay, not Commander. Something had changed.

'Of course,' he welcomed her into the living area and offered her a chair, but this was clearly not a social call.

'I'm here because of something Junior told me today,' she announced abruptly, corralling her first officer up against his own dining table. 'He said you knew something about what happened to me in the rift - why I woke up on the Aeroshuttle... What is it you aren't telling me, Chakotay?' her uncertainty made her go on the attack. 'Remember that conversation we had after you broke the Borg Alliance? About how we needed to trust one another, to solve our problems together? Well, where's the together in you concealing information from me now?' her eyes were sharp with anger, hurt and betrayal.

Chakotay immediately set down his wine glass and caught the captain's shoulder in his hand - anxious to calm her, reassure her. 'Please believe me, Kathryn,' he implored her quietly. 'There's so much I want to tell you, but I can't.'

'You can't, or you don't want to,' she frowned.

A muscle in the man's cheek jumped and he looked to the ceiling - reminding himself to act, not react. 'I can't tell you what happened because of the Temporal Prime Directive.'

There was a second's pause and all of the accusation in Kathryn's expression faded, replaced by something between confusion and dismay. 'Another timeline? How long were you gone? We gone?' she asked, begging him to tell her something, anything that might explain the nagging hole in her memory.

'Only a matter of days,' he shrugged sadly, 'but it was long enough to change things.'

He'd thought about the possibilities countless times. If he and Kathryn had stayed on Eden, Voyager might have still been home right now – safe in space dock over Earth. And if Q hadn't intervened in their shuttle crash, the two of them would almost certainly be dead. Maybe that was all irrelevant at this point, but there was still one potential deviation from the intended timeline that he couldn't discount.

In their current lifetime, he and Kathryn had not moved forward in their relationship - if anything, their friendship had only grown more strained. But if he told her of the experiences they'd shared on Eden and the love that had blossomed between them, she might be influenced to give the relationship a chance - potentially changing the future she was meant to have with another man. He might be robbing the universe of a child who was meant to be born. Or giving it a child who should never have existed.

'What things changed?' she was standing close to him now - pleading with her eyes, hand insistent on his arm. 'I understand your concerns about the Temporal Prime Directive, but anything you say is safe with me. I only want to look after my ship and my crew, and you're a part of my crew, Chakotay. I'm your captain. Your friend. Whatever's troubling you, please let me share the burden.'

'I can't,' he felt helpless, trapped between the future he wished he could have had and the timeline he was bound to protect. 'I just...' his left hand shot out before he could stop it and his thumb brushed lightly over her cheek.

Kathryn's eyes widened at his touch and she held very still, alert to the darkening of his gaze, anticipating his next move.

'...I can't,' Chakotay shook his head and his hand fell to his side once more.

Kathryn let out an unsteady breath and loosened her own grip from his arm. 'If that's how it has to be, I guess that's how it has to be,' she pressed her lips together and took a step back.

'I'm sorry, Kathryn,' Chakotay half-reached for her but she was already on her way to the door.

'So am I,' Captain Janeway looked back once and then she was gone.

Chakotay sank to the nearest chair and buried his face in his hands. At least things couldn't get any worse.

As it turned out, they could. An alarm went off. His pasta sauce was burning to the pan.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Work to the Aeroshuttle was completed in only a few days. Junior was extremely proud of himself, considering he'd managed the feat without the help of his Q powers, and practically the whole crew now had their faces plastered to Voyager's mess hall windows - hoping to catch a glimpse of the new shuttle's maiden flight.

'Are you sure you don't need me at the helm?' Lieutenant Paris wheedled as Captain Janeway approached the shuttle door with Crewman Q.

'We'll be fine, Tom,' she assured him. 'Junior knows the Aeroshuttle better than any of us, and I've been fully briefed on the controls. If we get unlucky and run into any problems, I'd rather have you back here in the shuttle bay monitoring the flight computer remotely and analysing the data for our next test-flight... and to tractor us back in, if needed.'

Paris tried not to look disappointed. Any ensign with half a brain could have done the job she'd assigned to him, but he understood that the captain wanted to test the vessel herself. Captain Janeway had been an unstoppable force from the moment she'd set foot on the bridge in the Alpha Quadrant - pushing every department to work at peak efficiency to get Voyager on its way again, and overseeing each aspect of their progress with a critical, almost obsessive eye. Of course she would want to be onboard for the test-flight of the newest asset they had in their bid to make it safely back to Earth.'

'Chin up, lieutenant,' Janeway smirked at the man's pitiful face. 'I'll make sure the shuttle gets back in one piece so you can tag along for flight number tw-...'

They both looked up as a disembodied voice interrupted their conversation over the comm.

Bridge to Captain Janeway. How are things looking down there? Are you clear for takeoff? It was Chakotay.

The commander had also offered to be in the navigator's seat for the shuttle's first test-flight. Kathryn trusted his piloting-skills over anyone else aboard and almost agreed for him to join her, but if things went pear-shaped she couldn't risk Voyager losing her captain and first officer in one go. There was also the matter of Junior. The young crewman had worked diligently to make the vessel flight-ready despite everybody's reservations, and she wanted to reward him with the privilege of being her co-pilot.

'All clear, commander,' she tapped her combadge to confirm. 'We're boarding now for final pre-flight checks. Stand by.'

Safe flight, captain, his words followed her into the shuttle and when she took her seat at the left-hand side of the instrument panel she had the strangest sensation that it was Chakotay sitting beside her at the controls, not Q Junior.

Crewman Q had complete faith in his work to the Aeroshuttle and was anxious to be off immediately, but Kathryn made him check the operational status of every one of the ship's systems before ordering the computer to initialise the cold launch sequence. The shuttle's hybrid power nacelles warmed into life with a low thrum, and a minute later a cheer went up from the mess hall as a pair of sleek, blue-lit wings soared past Voyager's forward port windows before setting a course for Ocampa 2 below.

'Excellent job, crewman,' Janeway's eyes gleamed with quiet excitement as the planet's reddish curve began to divide into a distinguishable patchwork of orange landmasses surrounded by blue-green seas. 'Take us down and let's see how she handles in the lower atmosphere.'

'Yes, capt-...'

There was a blinding light and the whole shuttle shuddered then came to a dead stop.

'What the hell was that?!' Captain Janeway jabbed at the control panel, trying to find evidence for the malfunction.

'Just little old me,' a voice crooned from behind her, and Kathryn swivelled around to see Q the senior seated at the auxiliary sensor station on the far starboard side of the cockpit - one leg crossed over the other and his elbow resting jauntily on the control desk. 'Kathy, darling. It's been so long. Did you miss me?'

'Q?' Kathryn gave up trying to bring the Aeroshuttle's systems back online and rose to face her antagonist, hands settling on her hips. 'Just tell me why you're here,' she demanded, irritated by the unexpected intrusion and weary of him already. 'Actually, why even bother telling me? You might as well go ahead and do whatever it was you came here to do, then wipe my memory afterwards like you did the last time. It would save us both a whole lot of time.'

'Oh, Kathy. Don't be such a spoil sport,' Q pouted, standing up to join her and giving her shoulder a condescending pat. 'Have a little faith. I only did what had to be done to satisfy certain... requirements of the Continuum. I don't see what the problem is here. You got what you wanted. You're practically home. And I got what I wanted too. I have a daughter now, did Junior tell you? A poor orphan girl I adopted out of the kindness of my heart - something I was inspired to do by you, in fact. I can't give away too many secrets, but she's a bright little youngster... though not half as clever as my own boy here.'

A grinning Junior crossed the cockpit to greet his father, and Q reached up to ruffle the lanky teen's hair.

'...Just look at you, Junior,' he gazed at his progeny proudly. 'So tall and handsome. A real chip off the old block! How's humanity suiting you?'

'Not as bad as I thought it might be,' Crewman Q beamed under his father's praise. 'Life on Voyager can get stale at times but I'm finding plenty of ways to entertain myself. There are a few downsides to the mortal body, though. You have to sleep, for one,' his lip curled in mild disgust. 'Then there's the body odour. And you don't even want to know what happens every morning before I take a high-pitched sonic shower.'

'Excuse me!' Janeway's voice snapped through their casual banter, her frustration rapidly escalating. 'But is somebody going to tell me what's going on? Q, why are you here?!'

Q returned his attention back to the ranting human, his expression knowing and vaguely amused. 'I'm sorry to tell you, captain, but you have a spy in your midst. I swear I didn't put him up to it, but Junior has dobbed you in...'

Kathryn shot snake eyes at her co-pilot, wondering how he'd betrayed her.

'...He says his Aunty Kathy and Uncle Chucky have been fighting and he can't bear the tension any longer. I warned you once before about the importance of being a positive role model to my son. Would you care to explain your actions?'

'I don't know what you're talking about,' the woman replied sourly. 'Chakotay and I aren't fighting. We're just... busy.'

'Hmm,' Q observed her with a discerning brow. 'And when are you not busy, captain?'

Captain Janeway glared at him. 'I'm trying to get my ship back home, as I'm sure you remember.'

'But I just gave you a fifty year head start,' Q countered. 'I fail to see the benefit of you thrashing yourself and your crew half to death, just for the sake of another month or two off your journey.'

'You wouldn't understand,' Kathryn hissed at him. 'It's my duty to get my crew home to their families - to their lives - as soon as possible. Now I can see that goal is within reach, I won't rest until-...'

'You fall over?' Q supplied. 'Until you crash the ship because you're so physically and mentally exhausted you start making poor decisions?'

'Until the crew hates you for pushing them so hard,' Junior added, backing off quickly when he felt the heat of Janeway's stare.

'Let me remind you, Kathy,' Q resumed his assault, 'my son is currently a mortal in your care, and I won't have him harmed because of your recklessness.'

'I am not being reckless!...'

'Perhaps not yet,' the Q held up a hand to silence her. 'But from where I stand, you certainly aren't coming across as very smart. Those lives of your crew men and women you're so obsessed about restoring - they didn't simply stop when the Caretaker flung you all into the Delta Quadrant. They're still being lived out, right now, on Voyager.'

She was going to argue again but Q suddenly planted his right hand on her opposite shoulder, drawing in close to murmur a secret in her ear.

'What if I were to tell you that you don't make it back to Earth?' he posed, voice hushed and slippery smooth. 'What if I were to say that three years from today, Voyager will be attacked by a humanoid species as yet unknown to the Federation, losing all hands in battle. Would you be so keen to hurtle blindly onward through space if you considered that was your final fate?' he pulled back to study her. 'Or would reevaluate your success parameters to view the current lives of your crew and yourself as just as valid and meaningful as the lives you might have lived back on Earth?'

There was a tense silence.

'So, that's Voyager's fate?' Kathryn felt like she'd just been kicked in the chest. 'Is that what you came here to tell me? That we're never going to make it home?'

'I didn't say it was or wasn't your fate,' Q answered cryptically. 'I only asked you to consider what if it were. The point is - and I've told you this before, not that you'd remember - if you only focus on rushing towards the future at the expense of your life right now, you may not like the person you've become by the time you get there.'

Kathryn knew herself. She knew she'd made concessions over the past three years - morally ambiguous decisions she never would have dreamed of making in her life before the Delta Quadrant. But she also knew what she was and what she had to do. 'I'm a Starfleet captain,' she stood taller, meeting the Q's eyes with absolute certainty. 'My life right now is Voyager - getting my ship and crew home - no more, no less.'

Q shook his head, wearying of her stubbornness. 'But it could be more, or so Junior has enthusiastically informed me. I knew you had a thing for guys with tattoos.'

Kathryn's indignant protest died on her tongue the moment that Q clicked his fingers.

In the space of a single breath she saw Q in her quarters - teasing her about being alone in her bed. That fateful glimpse of her future self - alone on the bridge as she delivered Voyager home. She saw Chakotay in his dressing gown, building her a fire and watching over her while she slept under the twin crescent moons of an alien sky. She saw Q announcing that Voyager had returned to Earth without them. Chakotay's distress at the loss of his Maquis brothers and sisters. The walls of the cabin bedroom where she spent three long days in silent anguish. Her hand joined with Chakotay's across the kitchen table. The sudden appearance of a young Q Junior and his wild plan to escape from Eden. Test-flying the aeroshuttle the first time around - the thrill she got from flying with her best friend, and the depth of their sharing afterwards. A wave wetting her to the skin. A future planned. A kiss. A bath. A night of undreamed pleasure - trust without limits, and passion without restraint. Waking, aching and contented, in the arms of the man she loved. And a goodbye to the godchild they'd cared for. And the horrifying moment their shuttle caught fire and began to crack.

The next second Kathryn was back in the Aeroshuttle with Q and Junior. Her hands dropped to her knees - the air snatched from her lungs and her muscles weak with shock.

'How? Why?...' she gasped, her mind still riveted to the image of her dear, brave Chakotay collapsed face down on the control desk, blood oozing from the gash at his temple.

The man had known all of this for a week and didn't tell her because of a stupid Starfleet directive? She had to go to him and tell him she remembered too! Tell him that no matter what they had suffered and lost, he was not alone. That Voyager might be her life but she wanted him to be a part of it too.

'How? Why?' Q echoed. 'Always with the questions, Kathy! If I breathe a word more than I've already told you, the Continuum will have both our guts for garters. Suffice it to say, I once promised your first officer that I'd help fix his pathetic lack of a love life, and I also promised Junior I'd check his godparents were providing him with a supportive, positive upbringing aboard Voyager. I think I've come through on both of those counts, don't yo-...'

'Are we done here, Q?' Kathryn cut him off, voice shaky and impatient. She felt like her body wanted to rush in every direction at once and it was only her skin that was holding her together. 'There's somewhere I need to be.

Q smirked at her eagerness. 'We're done, captain. Take good care of Junior for me until we meet again... and be sure to give Chuckles my best regards.'

The woman was going to correct him, but at the last moment she changed her mind and embraced him instead. 'Thank-Q,' she whispered sincerely, and when she pulled back she couldn't miss the streak of mischief that crossed the god's face.

'Of course, if you change your mind about Tattoo Boy,' Q splayed a hand across her back and pulled her in closer, 'you'll be pleased to know that I am back on the market again, and I'd be more than happy to renew my previous offer.'

Kathryn answered with a roll of the eyes and pushed him away gently. If she was going to claim a life for herself, the only man she wanted to share that life with was not a god endowed with unimaginable cosmic powers, just a human - flawed like she was, but always striving to be better. And always supporting her to be the best person - the best captain - that she could be.

'Junior?' anticipation danced in her stomach as she turned to her godson, who was currently grinning back at her like an idiot. 'Take us home.'

'Yes, ma'am!' the young crewman gave his father a quick hug goodbye and returned to his post at the navigation controls. 'Setting a course for Voyager.'

Captain Janeway tapped her combadge, her heart in her mouth. 'Aeroshuttle to Bridge. We're on our way back. Commander Chakotay, meet us in the docking bay. It's urgent.'

Acknowledged, came the immediate reply.

Urgent? Chakotay's chest gripped in panic. He passed the bridge over to Tuvok and ran.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note:

Nearly done - one final, massive chapter to go! Comments/kudos welcome - thanks for your support :)


	14. Chapter 14

Chakotay nearly KO'd an ensign as he burst from the turbolift on Deck 9 and rushed toward the Aeroshuttle's docking bay. Kathryn wouldn't have called him away from the bridge unless something serious had happened - but what? Q Junior would have a lot to answer for if he'd rushed his upgrades to the shuttle and put the captain in danger. But surely it wasn't that. B'Elanna had double-checked and approved all of the boy's modifications... So what, then?

'Paris, report!' the commander ordered as soon as he entered through the docking bay door.

'I've got nothing,' Tom rubbed the back of his head, mystified. 'The Aeroshuttle was making a steady descent towards the planet. There was a tiny glitch in the data stream when they reached the upper atmosphere, and the next thing I could see, Junior and the captain were heading right back to Voyager again. I'm not making out any damage to the shuttle's exterior. Systems all appear to be operational. There are two healthy life signs aboard. If there's a problem, it's not showing up on my readings.'

Chakotay grabbed onto the edge of Tom's control desk to stop himself from pacing. The last time he and Kathryn took a flight in the Aeroshuttle it almost ended in tragedy, and he couldn't kick the feeling that something must have gone terribly wrong again. By the time the shuttle made its approach to dock with Voyager, Commander Chakotay had called for two security officers to be stationed near the door and alerted the EMH to be on standby for a medical emergency, just in case.

The last minute was the longest - waiting for Junior to manoeuver the craft into position - but eventually locking clamps clicked into place, engines vented as they powered down, and there was a hiss as the starboard door swung open.

'What happened, captain?' Chakotay was already moving towards the shuttle as Kathryn emerged from the doorway with Q Junior close behind her. 'You said it was urgent?'

Captain Janeway snatched a glance at her first officer and faltered, unable to look away. The man's face was a question - lined with worry, eyes flashing with an intense protectiveness that went far deeper than the concern of a colleague or even a friend.

'Clear the room,' she announced tersely, tearing her attention away from Chakotay to watch the two security officers exit out into the corridor, followed by a casually loping Q Junior.

'Hey, lieutenant,' the teenager called to Tom Paris, who was still busy at his console in the middle of the room. 'Want to come and check out the new holodeck program I made? It's got Orions in it!'

Tom glanced up from his work distractedly. He was running another scan for flight anomalies - determined to uncover the reason for the Aeroshuttle's computer glitch so he could make a full report to the captain. 'Some other time, Junior. I'm on duty here.'

'Not anymore, Tom,' the captain prompted quietly but firmly. 'I need you to go, too.' She could feel Chakotay's anxious presence beside her and she had to ball her fists to stop herself from reaching out and smoothing the tension from the poor man's face.

'But... the flight data you asked for...,' Paris looked crestfallen.

Kathryn shook her head. 'I'm sure it's fascinating, lieutenant, but it will have to wait. Now, please,' she commanded in a tone that left no room for negotiation, and indicated to the door.

Tom left with a worried glance over his shoulder. It was no secret that Captain Janeway had been at odds with Chakotay since the failure of the Borg alliance. The captain had been withdrawn, even snappy with her first officer, and right now they both looked so wound up that something had to give. Tom briefly considered calling Security back to wait in the corridor, but decided against it. If there was an argument Captain Janeway wouldn't want anyone to hear it. And if it came to blows Chakotay was big enough to look after himself.

The moment the shuttle bay doors sealed closed, Chakotay took a final, swift pace towards his captain and searched her face for information. 'Talk to me, Kathryn. Are you alright?' he longed to reach for her, but after what happened the last time he didn't want to overstep any boundaries.

He needn't have held back. In the next breath, Kathryn closed the small space between them - her hands roaming restlessly over his chest, his arms, the shoulder that had been burned, the invisible wound at his temple.

'Q. I remember,' she whispered. It was all she needed to say.

Chakotay's arms shot out like springs and he clutched at her waist, holding on tightly in case she disappeared from him again.

'Kathryn,' all he managed was her name. It was a completely inadequate response, but the look in his eyes conveyed everything that was on his heart. Relief that she remembered what had happened, sorrow for the burden of loss they now shared and, most of all, his love for her always - in whatever way she could allow.

'How have you made it through this last week alone, Chakotay?' Kathryn demanded softly, her fingers soothing a path down his cheek. 'All your Maquis gone and you had nobody to talk to - to share your grief. I should have been here for you. I'm so, so sorry.'

His eyes darkened with love and sadness. 'You can't blame yourself for something you didn't even know about,' Chakotay ran one hand over her back with a steady, reassuring pressure. 'If anything, I'm the one who should be apologising. You were prepared to stay on Eden but I was the one who pushed for us to leave. Voyager was already home - our crew already with their loved ones. I'm not sure I can forgive myself for taking that away from them.'

Kathryn couldn't believe she'd spent the last three years with this man at her side and never fully appreciated what she had in him. In that short time, he'd gone from an enemy in open rebellion to her most loyal officer and friend - the one person who cared for the welfare of Voyager and their crew as much as she did. She couldn't have truly loved a man if he was anything less, but Chakotay was all that and more.

'Hush, Chakotay,' she murmured, her mouth softening into a wistful smile. 'You aren't responsible for stopping our crew getting home. Leaving Eden was a decision we both made together, and I, for one, am grateful that Q didn't send us all the way back to Earth.'

Chakotay's head tilted almost imperceptibly, his eyes sharpening with a single question. 'Why?' the movement of his lips caught her attention and she dropped her gaze to trace their outline before looking up at him once more.

'Because I've finally stopped rushing around for long enough to realise how lucky I am to have you,' her eyes brightened suddenly and Chakotay watched in surprise as the first tear rolled down her cheek. The second and third he wiped away gently with his thumb. The fourth he caught with a soft, brushing kiss.

'And you do have me, Kathryn,' he felt her relax into him as he pressed his lips, firm and unhurried this time, to the space between her brows. 'So why the tears... or is there something I'm missing?'

She blinked to clear her eyes and gazed up at him, bittersweet. 'You asked me once before if I had any regrets...,' her fingers skimmed the line of his jaw. 'My answer hasn't changed. I only regret the time we've wasted by not doing this sooner... That it took a lesson from Q, of all people, to make me realise that I've been watching my life pass by and not really living it.'

'You? Not living?' Chakotay shook his head in bemusement, catching her shoulders and kneading them gently. 'Q told you that and you believed him? Kathryn Janeway, you do more living in a single day than most people fit into a whole year!'

'But can you really call that living?' she held his eyes steadily, willing him to understand. 'That was just me being busy. Getting through a never-ending list of duties that needed to be done. Planning for a future that may or may not ever come to pass. But I don't think that's enough for me anymore... Chakotay?' her palms found his chest, fingers worrying at the stripe on his jacket that divided black from red. 'I was wondering, if it's not too late to ask... would you like to try living with me? I mean... not in my quarters - well, maybe that too - it's just...'

She knew she wasn't making any sense, but the man was looking at her as though his life depended on her every next word so she regrouped and tried again.

'...The thing is, we don't know for certain what will happen to Voyager - to us - between here and Earth, and if all of this was over tomorrow I want to be able to look back and know that I was really alive today. And I don't know if I ever told you, Chakotay,' her chin trembled slightly and her eyes glistened over again, 'but every time I look at you, you make me feel aliv-...'

She had no chance to finish the thought because Chakotay's lips were already pressing urgently against hers, his hands sliding over her back and pulling her flush against his body. Kathryn responded with a muffled, needy whimper and wrapped her arms around his neck - one hand tufting into the back of his hair to drag him even closer. Their kiss was greedy, uninhibited - everything they longed for but, somehow, still nowhere near enough. When they finally broke apart to breathe Chakotay kept his head bowed, smouldering gaze never straying from his lover, while Kathryn's eyes remained half-closed.

'I take it that's a yes?' she asked, voice unsteady.

'Um, I think so,' he nodded thoughtfully, though his face shone with untold happiness. 'Let me just check,' he tilted his jaw to kiss her again, testing her lips with a playful peck. 'Hmm...,' peck, 'yes...,' another peck, 'definitely yes.'

'Shut up and kiss me properly, Chakotay,' the captain ordered him, and he willingly complied.

This time their kiss was slower - sweet but delving - and it was only the catch of the captain's combadge against Chakotay's jacket that reminded her she was on duty, giving her the self-control to pull away. She didn't make it very far, though. For one sublime, uninterrupted minute, Kathryn rested her head on Chakotay's shoulder - her arms looped loosely around his waist - while Chakotay held her close and contented himself by tracing the imaginary pattern of a feather tattoo over her left eye.

'What are we going to tell the crew?' he spoke softly, asking the same question she was already thinking. They might have this perfect moment to themselves, but how were they going to make things work within the day-to-day structure of their lives and roles aboard Voyager?

Kathryn lifted her head to look at him, stepping back slightly and running her hands over his Starfleet jacket to straighten out any suspicious rumples. 'I think I've got an idea about that. Do you trust me?'

Chakotay tucked back a few strands of his captain's hair that come loose from her bun, and delivered a final, chaste peck to her kiss-reddened lips.

'Always.'

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was standing room only in the mess hall that evening. A full crew assembly had been ordered for seventeen hundred hours, and every person present seemed to have a different idea about why the meeting had been called.

'The senior staff have been locked in the briefing room all afternoon,' a science officer told her crewmate confidentially. 'Maybe we've made contact with Starfleet and we're all going to get messages from home?'

'Probably another duty roster revision,' someone from Engineering grumbled. 'Torres has been working us to the bone since that last temporal rift cracked Voyager open like an eggshell. If I have to do one more extra shift without a proper break, I quit. At least if B'Elanna chucks me in the brig I'll get to have a sleep.'

'It's finally happening,' one man in a security officer's uniform whispered to a small huddle of his ex-Maquis crewmates. 'The captain's been at Chakotay's throat ever since we arrived in the Alpha Quadrant. I bet she's going to demote him and make Tuvok first officer instead.'

The crowd finally quietened down as the top brass filed into the mess hall. Lieutenants Torres and Paris entered first, standing off to one side of the room together, while Neelix and the doctor followed immediately after - one as cheerful as the other was dour. Harry would have preferred to join Tom and B'Elanna, but he saw Seven of Nine glaring at a smug-looking Q Junior and thought he'd better intervene before their conversation boiled over into an argument and ruined everyone's night.

Last of all came Lieutenant Tuvok, Commander Chakotay and Captain Janeway - the captain moving to the front of the gathering to address her crew.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' she began earnestly. 'I've called you all here this evening to thank each and every one of you for your hard work and dedication over the past week - and the past three years. No matter what challenges this unexpected journey has thrown at us, you've faced them with good humour, courage and resilience. When we make it back home in a few years' time, I can't wait to tell every Federation captain and admiral that I meet just how incredibly proud I am to have served aboard Voyager with the greatest crew in the history of Starfleet!'

Spontaneous applause erupted, but the captain held up her hand for silence, her expression growing more serious.

'There is another important reason for our meeting today,' she looked out over the sea of red, gold and teal jackets and took a moment to connect with each of the faces staring back at her. 'I chanced to speak with an old friend today. Q paid me a visit while Junior and I were flight-testing the Aeroshuttle earlier this morning.'

An uneasiness settled over the room. Everybody knew that a visit from Q meant trouble.

'As you all know, it has been my primary objective as captain to get Voyager back home to Earth as quickly as possible. However, it has become clear to me today that I've been pushing you all too hard, and that approach is no longer sustainable.'

There were one or two muttered agreements from the floor.

'As much as we all might wish to get home right away, I've decided to make an adjustment to our main directive... We're still going to make it back to Earth, no matter what,' Janeway assured her people quickly when she saw a look of alarm appear on several faces, 'but we're going to achieve that goal through a more balanced, measured approach - not always hunting after the next shortcut home, but spending our time in this sector productively as the scientists we were trained to be.'

The captain was in her element, and Commander Chakotay stood behind her proudly - watching as the crew (Starfleet and Maquis alike) were drawn in by her compelling vision and decisive leadership.

'Thanks to Kes and Q,' Captain Janeway explained, 'we are now a comfortable five years away from Federation Space - just beyond the edges of Starfleet's explored territory. Our new directive is to document this stretch of the Alpha Quadrant rigorously, and to strive to initiate positive First Contact with as many new species as we can. I don't want Voyager limping home tired and empty-handed. We can aim higher than that! We are the leading experts on this region of space, and the scientific data we gather over the next few years is going to provide the basis for Starfleet's successful diplomatic and trade endeavours in Deep Space over the next few centuries!'

The average height of the crew rose by about two inches - their collective sense of pride making everyone stand taller.

'... But before the real exploring work begins,' the captain's face took on a new lightness, 'I've advised your senior officers to cancel all non-essential tasks for the next three days so the whole crew can enjoy some well-earned R & R.'

The solemn air in the room lifted suddenly - chased away by enthusiastic cheers as several crew members embraced one another in celebration and relief.

'Lieutenants Torres and Paris have agreed to put in some extra hours after dinner tonight to get both holodecks up and running again,' the deal-sweetener inspired another wave of cheering and applause. '...And while I can't offer you shore leave at a top-of-the-range beach hotel or a thriving alien metropolis, if anybody is interested in signing up for an excursion down to Ocampa 2, our wonderful morale officer has concocted a list of nature-based leisure activities to suit the planet's terrain... Mr Neelix tells me that rock climbing, abseiling, and land surfing are all on the menu.'

Their exclamations of approval had Neelix bouncing on his toes with happiness, but the captain soon brought the room to order again.

'While we're all together I have a few additional announcements to make. Mr Kim, would you step forward please?'

Harry shuffled to the front, clearly as surprised as everyone else.

Captain Janeway laid a motherly hand on his shoulder. 'It's hard to believe that Ensign Kim was fresh out of Starfleet Academy when he joined Voyager's crew just over three years ago. In that time, Harry has served as a highly valued member of our bridge crew, he saved the life of Lieutenant Paris during their incarceration on an Akritirian prison station last year, and he has patiently applied himself to his new role of assisting Seven of Nine and Q Junior with their integration into the crew and their modifications to the Astrometrics Lab. Given all of these factors, it is my great honour to promote you, Harry Shun Li Kim, to the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Commander Chakotay, the pip, please.'

Chakotay handed her the tiny, black disc and Captain Janeway fastened it to Harry's collar with all the pomp and ceremony he deserved. 'Well done, Harry,' she beamed at him. 'We couldn't have you stay an ensign forever, now, could we?!'

When Harry had been duly congratulated by all, the captain called for silence a final time.

'Before I let you all go, I have one remaining item of business to share with you,' she announced smoothly. 'At the conclusion of this meeting, Commander Chakotay and I will be heading off-ship for three days of personal leave. We intend to take the Aeroshuttle for additional flight-testing within the current star system, and will use our time away to explore the larger southern continent of Ocampa 2 for any useful mineral deposits we may have missed on the general scans.'

Kathryn felt strangely nervous now the time had come to make her last piece of news public. She looked to Chakotay for support and the commander moved to stand by her side, in the place where he belonged.

'When we return to Voyager,' she found her courage and pressed on, 'you will note a change in cabin assignments. Commander Chakotay's previous quarters will be reassigned as a personal office and meditation space, however, his official room designation will henceforth be on Deck 3, in cabin 205, with me.'

There was a mass intake of breath from the crew as the penny slowly dropped, then a whoop from Tom Paris started off a chain reaction until the whole room echoed with riotous congratulations and applause. Commander Chakotay's face nearly split in two from grinning so widely, and the captain's efforts to maintain a professional demeanour failed miserably when her first officer gave in to the juvenile demands of the crowd and kissed her soundly on the lips.

'Tell us the story, then, Chakotay!' Paris shouted, when the happy couple pulled back from one another, smiling self-consciously, and everybody quietened down in anticipation of the tale.

'Sorry, friends,' the commander denied them flatly, though his eyes were twinkling. 'Temporal Prime Directive - my lips are sealed.'

The crew laughed good-naturedly and begged for whatever details they could get, but Captain Janeway had someplace else to be.

'Lieutenant Tuvok. Do you mind if we leave this rabble to you? I've got personal leave owing and, frankly, it's long overdue.'

'It would be my privilege, captain... commander,' the Vulcan bowed his head to each of them and accepted command of the crew. 'Live long and prosper.'

Kathryn nodded to Tuvok gratefully then took Chakotay's hand and met his gaze, her lips turning upwards in a contented curve. 'That sounds like a good plan to me.'

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Junior stood alone in the docking bay, watching the blue wings of the Aeroshuttle fading to distant pin-points against the vast blackness of space.

'Do you think I'd still have a shot with the captain if I went after them now?' a voice enquired morosely, and the young Q spun around to see his father gazing out through the docking bay airlock beside him, every inch of skin protruding from his Starfleet uniform covered in tattoos like he was the star attraction of a 19th Century circus freak show.

'Nope. Not even the slightest,' Junior patted his old man on the shoulder in commiseration. 'What are you doing here anyway? Aren't you meant to be looking after the baby Q, or are you really not cut out for parenthood?'

Q looked hurt. 'I'm turning out to be a very attentive father, I'll have you know. Qes is attending a How-to-Q mentoring session with her High and Mighty Judgeship, so I thought I'd use the time to pop in and check on my favourite son... It's a shame about Chuckles ruining my future with sweet Kathy, but seeing as the cats are away, I wonder what games you and I might play with the rest of Voyager's crew? The officer with the pointy ears is much too serious for my liking. Fancy a little fun, Junior?'

'Don't you dare!' the boy warned emphatically. 'I'm trying to be on my best behaviour for Aunt Kathy. She's proud of my work, Dad. I might even make Ensign soon if you don't go and ruin my chances.'

'Me? Ruin my boy's chances at becoming an ensign?' Q's eyes widened in innocence. 'Never!'

'See you in a year, Dad,' Junior waved him on his way, hoping the Q would take the hint and leave before he could stir up any more trouble.

'You'll see me whenever it suits me, boy-o,' Q shot back. He clicked his fingers and disappeared.

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Not too far away, Kathryn Janeway rose from her chair in the Aeroshuttle and moved to stand behind Chakotay at the navigation controls - draping one arm across his shoulders so they could look out to the stars of the Alpha Quadrant together. The man glanced up at her tenderly and caught her fingertips in his, and that's when the bunch of red roses suddenly appeared on the captain's vacant seat.

'I think they're for you,' Chakotay reached among the blooms for the note with the 'Q' on it and passed it up to her curiously.

Kathryn accepted the card with some trepidation, then chuckled softly - resting her chin on top of Chakotay's head and holding the message out in front of them for him to read.

To my Darling Kathy,

Congratulations on the romantic getaway. As someone who's taken a peep through your various pasts and futures, may I be the first to say - it's about time! So good to see that Junior is doing well on Voyager.

Thank-Q.  
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Author's Note:

J/C forever, is all I can say! And Q is officially my hero.

Thank you (and thank-Q) to everyone who has supported me in writing this story by leaving comments/kudos. If you've been reading stealthily from the shadows like a member of the Romulan Tal Shiar, now's your chance to reveal yourself dramatically and leave an overall comment.

So, the story proper is complete, but maybe there's one little bonus surprise to be added? Watch this space...


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